Active Magnetic Radiation Shielding For Long-Duration Human Spaceflight

<p>Exploration of interplanetary space presents dramatic hazards to human survival.</p> <p>Space radiation hazards outside the protection of the Earth’s magnetosphere can</p> <p>produce both acute and chronic health risks and thus become limiting factors for</p> <p>NASA’s planned mission to Mars by the 2030s. Radiation exposure on a Mars mission</p> <p>is delivered primarily by high energy ions from galactic cosmic rays and moderate</p> <p>energy protons from solar particle events. The chronic radiation dose due to galactic</p> <p>cosmic rays on a typical Mars mission is on the order of 1 Sv, and additional acute</p> <p>radiation dose from solar flares can reach over 4 Sv, which is a potentially lethal dose.</p> <p>Hence radiation protection is a critical concern on these types of missions.</p> <p>Various methods of radiation shielding have been proposed, from simple passive</p> <p>shielding via materials such as water, polyethylene, or aluminum, to active shielding</p> <p>systems comprised of electromagnetic fields. The concept of active magnetic shielding</p> <p>is to use high-temperature superconducting coils to induce very high magnetic fields</p> <p>around the spacecraft. The induced magnetic field will deflect incoming charged</p> <p>particles (solar particles and galactic cosmic rays), thereby reducing the particle</p> <p>fluence rate and radiation dose to astronauts behind the shield.</p> <p>This project developed a model for determining the effectiveness of active</p> <p>magnetic shielding in reducing radiation dose to astronauts on an interplanetary</p> <p>mission. This research includes Monte Carlo simulations to determine the</p> <p>effectiveness of magnetic shielding in decreasing effective dose to astronauts in a</p> <p>variety of mission scenarios. Dozens of permutations of mission type, mission</p> <p>duration, solar cycle, shielding configuration, magnetic field, crew sex, crew age, and</p> <p>phantom type were simulated in GEANT4 to conduct a sensitivity analysis on the effect</p> <p>of varying each parameter on total crew effective dose for the mission.</p> <p>Results indicate that magnetic shielding can reduce effective dose to astronauts</p> <p>on an interplanetary mission to within NASA’s current limits, given a magnetic field of</p> <p>7 T and/or advanced astronaut age. The detailed results serve to inform the human</p> <p>spaceflight community on the utility of active magnetic shielding as compared to</p> <p>passive or no shielding, based upon an end-to-end system model and comparison of</p> <p>several active magnetic shielding strategies.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation (PhD)

Year dc:date.available

2020

Authors dc:creator

• Ferrone, Kristine
• <p>0000-0003-4639-7990</p>

Contributors dc:contributor

• Stephen Kry
• Charles Willis
• Fada Guan

• space radiation
• radiation protection
• radiation shielding
• human spaceflight
• Medicine and Health Sciences
• Other Astrophysics and Astronomy
• Other Physics

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/utgsbs_dissertations/1019

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu:utgsbs_dissertations-2070