Radiation Shielding Evaluation of Spacecraft Walls against Heavy Ions Using Microdosimetry

Publication Name

IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science

Abstract

Despite the low contribution of heavy ions to the total fluence in the space radiation environment, their radiobiological effect on the human body is extremely high. In this article, we investigated the radiation field which resulted from the interaction of galactic cosmic rays (GCRs), specifically some heavy ions and energies, typically encountered in space with a realistic multilayer sample of the International Space Station (ISS) Columbus module's shielding wall. The quality factor, Q, and the normalized dose equivalent, H, derived from microdosimetric measurements for C, Ne, and Si ions behind different spacecraft wall configurations and materials are presented in this article. Particularly, carbon fiber, polyoxymethylene, and perspex with same areal density compared to currently used aluminum were investigated.

Open Access Status

This publication is not available as open access

Volume

68

Issue

5

Article Number

9235502

First Page

897

Last Page

905

Funding Number

4000112670/14/NL/HK

Funding Sponsor

European Space Agency

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Link to publisher version (DOI)

http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TNS.2020.3032946