Arturo Ortiz, SpSt M.Sc. 2015, presented a technical paper at the 45th International Conference on Environmental Systems (ICES), held at Seattle on July 12-16, 2015.\u00a0 The paper was based on Ortiz\u2019s M.Sc. thesis, and was coauthored with UND Associate Professors Vadim Rygalov and Pablo de Le\u00f3n.\u00a0 Dr. Rygalov was the thesis advisor.<\/p>\n
Ortiz, A. R., Rygalov, V. Y., and de Le\u00f3n, P. (2015), \u201cRadiation Protection Strategy Development for Mars Surface Exploration,\u201d 45th International Conference on Environmental Systems (ICES), 12-16 July 2015, Paper ICES-2015-54<\/p>\n
Abstract:\u00a0 Computational analyses were performed to assess space radiation shielding effectiveness of \u2018minimal\u2019 planetary surface exploration concepts developed by the University of North Dakota:\u00a0 the Inflatable Lunar-Martian Habitat (ILMH), Pressurized Electric Rover (PER), and NDX-2 space suit.\u00a0 Using the HZETRN and NUCFRG3 radiation analysis computer codes with ray-by-ray transport through three-dimensional shielding thickness distributions, the authors calculated doses in the Mars surface environment under conditions of the February 1956 solar flare and 1977 solar minimum galactic cosmic radiation.\u00a0 Results indicate that polyethylene shielding of 5, 10, and 15 g\/cm2<\/sup> can protect the ILMH up to 11, 18, and 25 km surface elevation, respectively, while 1m of Mars regolith can protect up to 30 km.\u00a0 The shielded ILMH is adequate as primary radiation storm shelter, and meets permissible limits for 30 and 365 day exposures. \u00a0The structural shell of the PER can protect from acute exposure only up to 5 km elevation, and hence is not adequate as a secondary storm shelter.\u00a0 A Mylar space suit at a thickness of 500 micrometers can protect from acute exposure only up to 4 km.\u00a0 The authors estimated doses for surface stays of 365 days, and found total dose varied from 176 mGy-Eq while performing minimal exploration, to 1025 mGy-Eq in a scenario that includes extravehicular activity (EVA) between 24 and 30 km elevation during a large solar flare.\u00a0 Acute exposure during the flare at high surface elevation approaches the threshold for acute radiation syndrome.\u00a0 Since the PER and space suit cannot protect from short term exposure except over a limited elevation range, fast access to a shielded habitat will always be required if a major solar storm occurs during surface roving or EVA.\u00a0 This drives a need to implement an early warning system for solar storms to enable safe extended surface exploration of Mars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Arturo Ortiz, SpSt M.Sc. 2015, presented a technical paper at the 45th International Conference on Environmental Systems (ICES), held at Seattle on July 12-16, 2015.\u00a0 The paper was based on Ortiz\u2019s M.Sc. thesis, and was coauthored with UND Associate Professors Vadim Rygalov and Pablo de Le\u00f3n.\u00a0 Dr. Rygalov was the thesis advisor. Ortiz, A. R., […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[290,250],"tags":[313,274],"class_list":["post-2195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home-page-news","category-space","tag-alumni","tag-presentation"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n