VALIDATION OF A TRANSPORT MODEL FOR A SHIELD AND SOLID STATE DETECTOR ARRANGEMENT

A critical enabling technology for the Human Exploration and Development of Space is the provision of adequate radiation protection to the astronauts and their equipment. In consequence, there is considerable interest in the development of new shielding materials for protection against the hazards of galactic cosmic rays. Since it is impractical to verify the shielding properties of every candidate material and configuration in space, it is desirable to develop a protocol for the rapid assessment of shielding properties. Solid-state detectors are often used to measure the charge and energy of particles in ion beam experiments. The direct measurement is energy deposited in the detector. As a means of separating the charge components in typical shield transmission studies with observation, a stack of many such detectors is used followed by analysis to determine charge and energy. The development of a transport model for the shield and detector arrangement and evaluation of prediction of the energy loss spectrum for direct comparison with the experimentally derived data allows a rapid assessment of the shield transmission characteristics. Such a model has recently been developed and is validated herein by comparison with results from particle beam experiments.

[1]  K. Frankel,et al.  The fragmentation of 510 MeV/nucleon iron-56 in polyethylene. I. Fragment fluence spectra. , 1996, Radiation research.

[2]  J. Wilson,et al.  A simple model for straggling evaluation. , 2002, Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section B, Beam interactions with materials and atoms.

[3]  Jack Miller,et al.  Fragmentation cross sections of 600 MeV/nucleon 20 Ne on elemental targets , 2001 .

[4]  L W Townsend,et al.  Radiation protection guidance for activities in low-Earth orbit. , 2002, Advances in space research : the official journal of the Committee on Space Research.

[5]  K. Frankel,et al.  Heavy fragment production cross sections from 1.05 GeV/nucleon 56Fe in C, Al, Cu, Pb, and CH2 targets. , 1997, Physical review. C, Nuclear physics.

[6]  J. Wilson,et al.  NUCFRG2: a semiempirical nuclear fragmentation model. , 1994, Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section B, Beam interactions with materials and atoms.

[7]  D. Stephens,et al.  Benchmark Studies of the Effectiveness of Structural and Internal Materials as Radiation Shielding for the International Space Station , 2003, Radiation research.