On July 20, 1989, the President of the United States announced a new direction for the US Space Program. The new Space Exploration Initiative (SEI) is intended to emplace a permanent base on the Lunar surface and a manned outpost on the Mars surface by 2019. In order to achieve this ambitious challenge, new, innovative and robust technologies will have to be developed to support crew operations. Nuclear power and propulsion have been recognized as technologies that are at least mission enhancing and, in some scenarios, mission enabling. Because of the extreme operating conditions present in a nuclear rocket core, accurate modeling of the rocket will require cross section data sets which do not currently exist. In order to successfully achieve the goals of the SEI, major obstacles inherent in long duration space travel will have to be overcome. One of these obstacles is the radiation environment to which the astronauts will be exposed. In general, an unshielded crew will be exposed to roughly one REM per week in free space. For missions to Mars, the total dose could exceed more than one-half the total allowed lifetime level. Shielding of the crew may be possible, but accurate assessments of shield composition and thickness are critical if shield masses are to be kept at acceptable levels. In addition, the entire ship design may be altered by the differential neutron production by heavy ions (Galactic Cosmic Rays) incident on ship structures. The components of the radiation environment, current modeling capability and envisioned experiments will be discussed.
Nuclear data needs for the space exploration initiative
1991
15 pages
Report
Keine Angabe
Englisch
Extraterrestrial Exploration , Space Safety , Radiation Shielding, Protection, & Safety , Nuclear Auxiliary Power Systems , Nuclear Propulsion , Nuclear Data Collections , Propulsion Systems , Space Flight , Space Propulsion Reactors , Cosmic Radiation , Data Compilation , Design , Luna Space Probes , Mars Space Probes , Radiation Doses , Radiation Protection , Shields , Technology Assessment , Space Exploration Initiative , EDB/654000 , EDB/220100 , EDB/220800 , EDB/640101
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