Multifunctional Cosmic-Ray Shielding of Spacecraft with Elements of Systems Engineering Design

Abstract

A systems engineering approach is applied to design and propose a solution for reducing the exposure of astronauts to galactic cosmic rays in space exploration beyond the magnetosphere of Earth. The proposed design is based on the deflection of high-energy charged cosmic particles (protons, alpha particles, electrons, etc.) by the electrostatic field created by multiplate low-energy capacitors surrounding the habitat capsule of a spacecraft. In this design, the electrical field outside the capacitors is negligibly small, which prevents the attraction of charged particles from the outer space to the spacecraft and does not affect the astronauts inside. Because the proposed shielding was designed to deflect any sort of charged particles and not to stop them, the design does not require thick and heavy materials to protect the spacecraft. In addition to active shielding by the electrostatic field of light capacitors, it is also proposed that the habitat capsule be surrounded by passive shielding “sandwichlike” multilayers of novel ultralight materials filled with hydrogen. Because of this, the proposed design is relatively lightweight, made of low-cost materials, simple to build and assemble, easily scalable to smaller or larger sizes or energy, and repeatable for double or multiple layers. In addition, a technique of using the cosmic charged particles to charge the capacitors as an additional supply of energy for the shielding system function and spacecraft operation is proposed.