Radiation measured for ISS-Expedition 12 with different dosimeters

Abstract

Radiation in low Earth orbit (LEO) is mainly from Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCR), solar energetic particles and particles in South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA). These particles’ radiation impact to astronauts depends strongly on the particles’ linear energy transfer (LET) and is dominated by high LET radiation. It is important to investigate the LET spectrum for the radiation field and the influence of radiation on astronauts. At present, the best active dosimeters used for all LET are the tissue equivalent proportional counter (TEPC) and silicon detectors; the best passive dosimeters are thermoluminescence dosimeters (TLDs) or optically stimulated luminescence dosimeters (OSLDs) for low LET and CR-39 plastic nuclear track detectors (PNTDs) for high LET. TEPC, CR-39 PNTDs, TLDs and OSLDs were used to investigate the radiation for space mission Expedition 12 (ISS-11S) in LEO. LET spectra and radiation quantities (fluence, absorbed dose, dose equivalent and quality factor) were measured for the mission with these different dosimeters. This paper introduces the operation principles for these dosimeters, describes the method to combine the results measured by CR-39 PNTDs and TLDs/OSLDs, presents the experimental LET spectra and the radiation quantities.