Abstract
Space radiation has been well-known as the main health hazard to crews involved in manned space explorations. Two kinds of hydrogenous-rich composites are developed through compressing molding under high-temperature processing techniques for shielding space radiation. Beams of 80~400 MeV/n 12 C of the Heavy Ion Research Facility in Lanzhou are used to test the shielding properties of the new composites. Experimental results show that the composite with more hydrogen content has higher shielding ability for 80 and 400 MeV/n 12 C particles. Meanwhile, the addition of boron has no obvious effect on improving the shielding performance of the composite. Monte Carlo radiation transport codes were used to assess the shielding performance of composite in real space radiation. The simulation results show that hydrogenous-rich composite has significant advantage in space radiation shielding compared with traditional aluminum.
Highlights
Space radiation has been identified as the main health hazard to crews involved in long-term interplanetary space missions
The special resin with high hydrogencontaining was synthesized through the design of molecular structure; in the second step, the high-density polyethylene fiber was used as reinforcement to prepare high hydrogencontaining composites; in the third step, boron powder was used as an additive to optimize the shielding performance of the composites
When the shielding thickness is larger than 10 g/cm2, the mass needed for shielding can be reduced by more than 77% and 33% for Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCRs) and Solar Particle Events (SPEs), respectively
Summary
Space radiation has been identified as the main health hazard to crews involved in long-term interplanetary space missions. SPEs last for several hours up to a few days with a very high flux of energetic protons, which can lead to acute effects, including lethal radiation syndromes. The energy of the GCRs is much higher, at least of an order of magnitude; the intensity of their flux is very lower and nearly continuous in time. What is dangerous for human health is the accumulation of their effects at an interval of time of several months or a few years [1]. During the foreseen 500-day mission to and from Mars, the dose due to GCRs will far exceed the limitation recommended by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) [3]. “Monte Carlo simulation of the exposure factor,” Chinese Physics B, vol 6, no. 18, pp. 113–118, 2009
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