Development of a Space Radiation Monte Carlo Computer Simulation

The ultimate purpose of this effort is to undertake the development of a computer simulation of the radiation environment encountered in spacecraft which is based upon the Monte Carlo technique. The current plan is to adapt and modify a Monte Carlo calculation code known as FLUKA, which is presently used in high energy and heavy ion physics, to simulate the radiation environment present in spacecraft during missions. The initial effort would be directed towards modeling the MIR and Space Shuttle environments, but the long range goal is to develop a program for the accurate prediction of the radiation environment likely to be encountered on future planned endeavors such as the Space Station, a Lunar Return Mission, or a Mars Mission. The longer the mission, especially those which will not have the shielding protection of the earth's magnetic field, the more critical the radiation threat will be. The ultimate goal of this research is to produce a code that will be useful to mission planners and engineers who need to have detailed projections of radiation exposures at specified locations within the spacecraft and for either specific times during the mission or integrated over the entire mission. In concert with the development of the simulation, it is desired to integrate it with a state-of-the-art interactive 3-D graphics-capable analysis package known as ROOT, to allow easy investigation and visualization of the results. The efforts reported on here include the initial development of the program and the demonstration of the efficacy of the technique through a model simulation of the MIR environment. This information was used to write a proposal to obtain follow-on permanent funding for this project

Simulation and Measurement of Absorbed Dose from 137 Cs Gammas Using a Si Timepix Detector

The TimePix readout chip is a hybrid pixel detector with over 65k independent pixel elements. Each pixel contains its own circuitry for charge collection, counting logic, and readout. When coupled with a Silicon detector layer, the Timepix chip is capable of measuring the charge, and thus energy, deposited in the Silicon. Measurements using a NIST traceable 137Cs gamma source have been made at Johnson Space Center using such a Si Timepix detector, and this data is compared to simulations of energy deposition in the Si layer carried out using FLUKA

Molecular regulation of the PAI‐1 gene by hypoxia: contributions of Egr‐1, HIF‐1 α, and C/EBPα

Hypoxia, as occurs during tissue ischemia, tips the natural anticoagulant/procoagulant balance of the endovascular wall to favor activation of coagulation. Plasminogen activator inhibitor‐1 (PAI‐1) is an important factor suppressing fibrinolysis under conditions of low oxygen tension. We previously reported that hypoxia induced PAI‐1 mRNA and antigen expression in murine macrophages secondary to increased de novo transcription as well as increased mRNA stability. We now show in RAW264.7 murine macrophages that the transcription factors early growth response gene‐1 (Egr‐1), hypoxia‐inducible factor‐1α (HIF‐1α), and CCAAT/enhancer binding protein α (C/EBPα) are quickly activated in hypoxia and are responsible for transcription and expression of PAI‐1. Murine PAI‐1 promoter constructs, including Egr, HIF‐1α, and/or C/EBPα binding sites, were transfected into RAW 264.7 murine macrophages. To identify the relative importance of each of these putative hypoxia‐responsive elements, cells were exposed to normobaric hypoxia, and transcriptional activity was recorded. At 16 h of hypoxic exposure, murine PAI‐1 promoter deletion constructs that included Egr, HIF‐1α, and/or C/EBPα binding sites demonstrated increased tran‐scriptional activity. Mutation of each of these three murine PAI‐1 promoter sites (or a combination of them) resulted in a marked reduction in hypoxia sensitivity as detected by transcriptional analysis. Functional data obtained using 32P‐labeled Egr, HIF‐1 α response element (HRE), and C/EBPα oligonucleotides revealed induction of DNA binding activity in nuclear extracts from hypoxic RAW cells, with supershift analysis confirming activation of Egr‐1, HIF‐1 α, or C/EBPα. ChIP analysis confirmed the authenticity of these interactions as each of these transcription factors binds to chromatin under hypoxic conditions. Further, the induction of PAI‐1 by Egr‐1, HIF‐1 α, or C/EBPα was replicated in primary peritoneal macrophages. These data suggest that although HIF‐1 α appears to dominate the PAI‐1 transcriptional response in hyp‐oxia, Egr‐1 and C/EBPα greatly augment this response and can do so independent of HIF‐1α or each other. These studies are relevant to ischemic up‐regulation of the PAI‐1 gene and consequent accrual of micro‐vascular thrombus under ischemic conditions.—Liao, H., Hyman, M. C., Lawrence, D. A., Pinsky, D. J. Molecular regulation of the PAI‐1 gene by hypoxia: contributions of Egr‐1, HIF‐1α, and C/EBPα. FASEB J. 21, 935–949 (2007)Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154298/1/fsb2fj066285com.pd

Status of the Space Radiation Monte Carlos Simulation Based on FLUKA and ROOT

The NASA-funded project reported on at the first IWSSRR in Arona to develop a Monte-Carlo simulation program for use in simulating the space radiation environment based on the FLUKA and ROOT codes is well into its second year of development, and considerable progress has been made. The general tasks required to achieve the final goals include the addition of heavy-ion interactions into the FLUKA code and the provision of a ROOT-based interface to FLUKA. The most significant progress to date includes the incorporation of the DPMJET event generator code within FLUKA to handle heavy-ion interactions for incident projectile energies greater than 3GeV/A. The ongoing effort intends to extend the treatment of these interactions down to 10 MeV, and at present two alternative approaches are being explored. The ROOT interface is being pursued in conjunction with the CERN LHC ALICE software team through an adaptation of their existing AliROOT software. As a check on the validity of the code, a simulation of the recent data taken by the ATIC experiment is underway

Heavy-ion collisions described by a new QMD code interfaced to FLUKA: model validation by comparisons with experimental data concerning neutron and charged fragment production

A new code, based on the Quantum Molecular Dynamics theoretical approach, has been developed and interfaced to the FLUKA evaporation/fission/Fermi break-up module. At present, this code is undergoing a series of validation tests. In this paper its predictions are compared to measured charged fragment yields and double differential neutron spectra in thin target heavy-ion reactions, at bombarding energies of about 100 MeV/A. The comparisons with the predictions of a modified version of RQMD 2.4 originally developed in Frankfurt, already available in the FLUKA code, are presented and potential improvements are briefly sketched.A new code, based on the Quantum Molecular Dynamics theoretical approach, has been developed and interfaced to the FLUKA evaporation/fission/Fermi break-up module. At present, this code is undergoing a series of validation tests. In this paper its predictions are compared to measured charged fragment yields and double differential neutron spectra in thin target heavy-ion reactions, at bombarding energies of about 100 MeV/A. The comparisons with the predictions of a modified version of RQMD 2.4 originally developed in Frankfurt, already available in the FLUKA code, are presented and potential improvements are briefly sketched

Battery-operated Independent Radiation Detector Data Report from Exploration Flight Test 1

Citation: Bahadori AA, Semones EJ, Gaza R, Kroupa M, Rios RR, Stoffle NN, Campbell-Ricketts T, Pinsky LS, and Turecek D 2015 Battery-operated Independent Radiation Detector Data Report from Exploration Flight Test 1 NASA/TP-2015-218575 NASA Johnson Space Center: Houston, TX http://ston.jsc.nasa.gov/collections/TRS/397.refer.htmlThis report summarizes the data acquired by the Battery-operated Independent Radiation Detector (BIRD) during Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1). The BIRD, consisting of two redundant subsystems isolated electronically from the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV), was developed to fly on the Orion EFT-1 to acquire radiation data throughout the mission. The BIRD subsystems successfully triggered using on-board accelerometers in response to launch accelerations, acquired and archived data through landing, and completed the shut down routine when battery voltage decreased to a specified value. The data acquired are important for understanding the radiation environment within the Orion MPCV during transit through the trapped radiation belts

The Application of FLUKA to Dosimetry and Radiation Therapy

Monte Carlo transport codes like FLUKA are useful for many purposes, and one of those is the simulation of the effects of radiation traversing the human body. In particular, radiation has been used in cancer therapy for a long time, and recently this has been extended to include heavy ion particle beams. The advent of this particular type of therapy has led to the need for increased capabilities in the transport codes used to simulate the detailed nature of the treatment doses to the Y ~ ~ O U S tissues that are encountered. This capability is also of interest to NASA because of the nature of the radiation environment in space.[l] While in space, the crew members bodies are continually being traversed by virtually all forms of radiation. In assessing the risk that this exposure causes, heavy ions are of primary importance. These arise both from the primary external space radiation itself, as well as fragments that result from interactions during the traversal of that radiation through any intervening material including intervening body tissue itself. Thus the capability to characterize the details of the radiation field accurately within a human body subjected to such external 'beams" is of critical importance

Event Generators for Simulating Heavy Ion Interactions of Interest in Evaluating Risks in Human Spaceflight

Simulating the Space Radiation environment with Monte Carlo Codes, such as FLUKA, requires the ability to model the interactions of heavy ions as they penetrate spacecraft and crew member's bodies. Monte-Carlo-type transport codes use total interaction cross sections to determine probabilistically when a particular type of interaction has occurred. Then, at that point, a distinct event generator is employed to determine separately the results of that interaction. The space radiation environment contains a full spectrum of radiation types, including relativistic nuclei, which are the most important component for the evaluation of crew doses. Interactions between incident protons with target nuclei in the spacecraft materials and crew member's bodies are well understood. However, the situation is substantially less comfortable for incident heavier nuclei (heavy ions). We have been engaged in developing several related heavy ion interaction models based on a Quantum Molecular Dynamics-type approach for energies up through about 5 GeV per nucleon (GeV/A) as part of a NASA Consortium that includes a parallel program of cross section measurements to guide and verify this code development

Comparison of Radiation Transport Codes, HZETRN, HETC and FLUKA, Using the 1956 Webber SPE Spectrum

Protection of astronauts and instrumentation from galactic cosmic rays (GCR) and solar particle events (SPE) in the harsh environment of space is of prime importance in the design of personal shielding, spacec raft, and mission planning. Early entry of radiation constraints into the design process enables optimal shielding strategies, but demands efficient and accurate tools that can be used by design engineers in every phase of an evolving space project. The radiation transport code , HZETRN, is an efficient tool for analyzing the shielding effectiveness of materials exposed to space radiation. In this paper, HZETRN is compared to the Monte Carlo codes HETC-HEDS and FLUKA, for a shield/target configuration comprised of a 20 g/sq cm Aluminum slab in front of a 30 g/cm^2 slab of water exposed to the February 1956 SPE, as mode led by the Webber spectrum. Neutron and proton fluence spectra, as well as dose and dose equivalent values, are compared at various depths in the water target. This study shows that there are many regions where HZETRN agrees with both HETC-HEDS and FLUKA for this shield/target configuration and the SPE environment. However, there are also regions where there are appreciable differences between the three computer c odes

Myeloid Mineralocorticoid Receptor During Experimental Ischemic Stroke: Effects of Model and Sex

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/139129/1/jah378.pd