Simulating elements of the space radiation environment on Earth

Abstract

Space radiation research is laying the groundwork for addressing the problem of radiation exposure to humans on extended space missions. This research relies heavily on investigations at ground-based proton and heavy ion accelerators. The interpretation of the data from these experiments depends sensitively on the details of how these heavily ionizing particles deposit their energy in beamline materials and in the instruments used to measure the radiation. We report on the results of measurements with ion beams at several accelerators, including the Bevalac (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory), AGS (Brookhaven National Laboratory), HIMAC (National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Chiba, Japan), and the new NASA Space Radiation Laboratory (NSRL) at Brookhaven. These measurements illustrate some of the critical features of heavy charged particle interactions.