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Space Radiation

Here are some notes on space radiation

  • TRISH talk by Tony Slaba, PhD: “Red Risk School – Space Radiation Environment and Ground Based Simulations” (slides available here).
    • LEO = Low Earth Orbit, GCR = Galactic Cosmic Ray
    • Most solar particles can’t penetrate the Van Allen Belts, but solar storms can sometimes
    • Solar particle are important for interplanetary  flights.
      • Composed of low to medium energy protons.
      • Low enough energy to be shielded
    • GCRs originate in supernovae
      • Includes everything on the periodic table, fully ionized
      • Highly energetic
      • Continuous, omnipresent background in space.
      • Main biological risk
      • GCR proton flux peaks at about 300 MeV at about 200/MeV/cm^2/day, but extends all the way up to TeV.
      • GCR background depends ~factor of 2 on solar activity
        • High activiy-> high fields -> fewer particles.
      • Mars mission ~1 Sv
    • Main facility is the National Space Radiation Laboratory (NSRL) at Brookhaven
      • Up to 1.5 GeV/n beams
      • Can rapidly switch between ions
        • ~30 beams/hr
    • Simulations
      • Actually get most radiation from low LET particles, because there are so many more of them.
      • Gathering most of their data with Hydrogen and Helium