Review of Nuclear Physics Experiments for Space Radiation

Human space flight requires protecting astronauts from the harmful effects of space radiation. The availability of measured nuclear cross section data needed for these studies is reviewed in the present paper. The energy range of interest for radiation protection is approximately 100 MeV/n to 10 GeV/n. The majority of data are for projectile fragmentation partial and total cross sections, including both charge changing and isotopic cross sections. The cross section data are organized into categories which include charge changing, elemental, isotopic for total, single and double differential with respect to momentum, energy and angle. Gaps in the data relevant to space radiation protection are discussed and recommendations for future experiments are made

Polyethylene as a Radiation Shielding Standard in Simulated Cosmic-Ray Environments

Radiation risk management for human space missions depends on accurate modeling of high-energy heavy ion transport in matter. The process of nuclear fragmentation can play a key role in reducing both the physical dose and the biological effectiveness of the radiation encountered in deep space. Hydrogenous materials and light elements are expected to be more effective shields against the deleterious effects of Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCR) than aluminum, which is used in current spacecraft hulls. NASA has chosen polyethylene, CH2, as the reference material for accelerator-based radiation testing of multi-function composites that are currently being developed. A detailed discussion of the shielding properties of polyethylene under a variety of relevant experimental conditions is presented, along with Monte Carlo simulations of the experiments and other Monte Carlo calculations in which the entire GCR flux is simulated. The Monte Carlo results are compared to the accelerator data and we assess the usefulness of 1 GeV/amu 56Fe as a proxy for GCR heavy ions. We conclude that additional accelerator-based measurements with higher beam energies would be useful

Principles Of Heliophysics: a textbook on the universal processes behind planetary habitability

This textbook gives a perspective of heliophysics in a way that emphasizes universal processes from a perspective that draws attention to what provides Earth (and similar (exo-)planets) with a relatively stable setting in which life as we know it can thrive. The book is intended for students in physical sciences in later years of their university training and for beginning graduate students in fields of solar, stellar, (exo-)planetary, and planetary-system sciences