Performance Study of Galactic Cosmic Ray Shield Materials

Download or read book Performance Study of Galactic Cosmic Ray Shield Materials written by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-07-09 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The space program is faced with two difficult radiation protection issues for future long-term operations. First, retrofit of shield material or conservatism in shield design is prohibitively expensive and often impossible. Second, shielding from the cosmic heavy ions is faced with limited knowledge on the physical properties and biological responses of these radiations. The current status of space shielding technology and its impact on radiation health is discussed herein in terms of conventional protection practice and a test biological response model. The impact of biological response on the selection of optimum materials for cosmic ray shielding is presented in terms of the transmission characteristics of the shield material. Although the systematics of nuclear cross sections are able to demonstrate the relation of exposure risk to shield-material composition, the current uncertainty in-nuclear cross sections will not allow an accurate evaluation of risk reduction. This paper presents a theoretical study of risk-related factors and a pilot experiment to study the effectiveness of choice of shield materials to reduce the risk in space operations. Kim, Myung-Hee Y. and Wilson, John W. and Thibeault, Sheila A. and Nealy, John E. and Badavi, Francis F. and Kiefer, Richard L. Langley Research Center RTOP 199-45-16-11...