Abstract Space radiation in the form of Solar Energetic Protons (SEPs) and Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCR) poses a substantial risk for long-duration space exploration. Active shielding concepts, i.e. shielding a spacecraft with electric and or magnetic fields, has been a topic of interest for more than 50 years. Mass and power requirements have yet to be fulfilled to enable active shielding technology. We present results for a single electric dipole to show the utility of scale-invariance and universal scaling for advancing active shielding concepts. Scattering patterns downstream from the dipole of 2 MeV to 6 MeV electrons and protons show a semi-circular region devoid of incident particles that increases in size with increasing dipole voltage. In particular, results are presented that show how scale-invariant approaches can be leveraged to enable small-scale shields to be built and tested on the ground and then scaled up for in-space use.
Graphical abstract Display Omitted
Highlights Scattering from an electric dipole applied to active radiation shielding. Shielding efficacy is developed and shown to exhibit scale-invariance. Scaling results imply viability as method to enable ground testing of shields.
Application of scaling methods to foster ground development of active shielding concepts for space exploration
Acta Astronautica ; 178 ; 296-307
2020-08-30
12 pages
Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
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