1 research outputs found
Pourable and Destroyable Cosmic Ray Radiation Shield for Spacecraft
Historically, materials such as lead, tungsten, and iron have been used in
spacecraft to shield scientific detectors from Cosmic Rays. These materials
work well when reentry to Earth is not an issue. The typical strategy is to
have a controlled descent of the spacecraft or to have extremely limited
shielding, if any, due to the NASA requirement that all impacting parts must
impact with no greater than 15J of energy. Given the nature of this mission
neither a controlled descent nor having no shielding was not an option. This is
the issue Wichita State University nuSOL team is facing for its 3U CubeSat
demonstrator.
The CubeSat will be equipped with scientific equipment with the purpose of
detecting solar neutrinos, and the less background noise from Cosmic Rays the
better the study will be. Through simulations, density tests, and burn tests,
WSU was able to develop an epoxy based shield doped with either iron or
tungsten powder. The simulations were conducted by firing electrons, protons,
alpha particles, and oxygen and iron nuclei into the shield material with
energies ranging from 1MeV until consistent failure rate using Geant4. The
standards for these simulations are the base epoxy at 1.15g per cc to solid
steel at 8g per cc . Mixing tests have determined for iron, a density of 4g per
cc is achievable, which is 53 percent iron by volume. Tungsten epoxy with a
density of 7.5g per cc is more easily achieved, and results in 40 percent
tungsten by volume. These ratios are concrete in texture, pourable, and
homogeneous.Comment: Manuscript presented at the International Astronautical Congress, IAC
2022, Paris, France, 18-22 September. Copyright by IA