Comparison of Ray-Tracing and Reverse Monte-Carlo Methods: Application to GEO orbit

Abstract

Ray-Tracing and Reverse Monte-Carlo are the two most widely used methods to estimate the dose at component level for space applications. The Ray-Tracing method is fast but presents intrinsic limitations while the Reverse Monte-Carlo method is more precise but more time consuming. In the frame of the ESA GTREFF project, a statistical comparison between these two methods has been performed, based on realistic satellite models for GEO orbit and using FASTRAD®. Results are presented and analyzed.