TY - JOUR
T1 - Radiation protection and shielding materials for crewed missions on the surface of Mars
AU - Gakis, Dionysios
AU - Atri, Dimitra
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank the members of the Geant4 collaboration who developed the software (geant4.cern.ch) used for this work.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2022 by the International Astronautical Federation (IAF). All rights reserved.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - A potential crewed mission to Mars would require us to solve a number of problems, including how to protect astronauts against the devastating effects of energetic charged particles from Solar and Galactic sources. The radiation environment on Mars is of particular interest, since maintaining optimal absorbed doses by astronauts is crucial to their survival. Here, we give an overview of the conditions on Mars, as determined by theoretical models and in-situ measurements, and present the main proposed strategies to mitigate radiation exposure while on Mars. Specifically, we focus on the passive shielding technique. Several widely used materials, along with some innovative ones and combinations of those, are studied for their behavior against Solar Energetic Particle Events and Galactic Cosmic Rays in the Martian environment. For that purpose, we implement the GEANT4 package, a Monte-Carlo numerical model developed by CERN, which is specifically applied to simulate interactions of radiation with matter. A description of our model will be given, followed by outputs of the numerical model. We conclude that hydrogen-rich materials act as better attenuators, as expected, but other materials can be helpful against cosmic rays too.
AB - A potential crewed mission to Mars would require us to solve a number of problems, including how to protect astronauts against the devastating effects of energetic charged particles from Solar and Galactic sources. The radiation environment on Mars is of particular interest, since maintaining optimal absorbed doses by astronauts is crucial to their survival. Here, we give an overview of the conditions on Mars, as determined by theoretical models and in-situ measurements, and present the main proposed strategies to mitigate radiation exposure while on Mars. Specifically, we focus on the passive shielding technique. Several widely used materials, along with some innovative ones and combinations of those, are studied for their behavior against Solar Energetic Particle Events and Galactic Cosmic Rays in the Martian environment. For that purpose, we implement the GEANT4 package, a Monte-Carlo numerical model developed by CERN, which is specifically applied to simulate interactions of radiation with matter. A description of our model will be given, followed by outputs of the numerical model. We conclude that hydrogen-rich materials act as better attenuators, as expected, but other materials can be helpful against cosmic rays too.
KW - astronaut protection
KW - cosmic radiation
KW - Mars
KW - materials
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85167608424&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85167608424&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Conference article
AN - SCOPUS:85167608424
SN - 0074-1795
VL - 2022-September
JO - Proceedings of the International Astronautical Congress, IAC
JF - Proceedings of the International Astronautical Congress, IAC
T2 - 73rd International Astronautical Congress, IAC 2022
Y2 - 18 September 2022 through 22 September 2022
ER -