NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) 20060013413: Active Solid State Dosimetry for Lunar EVA

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by  NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Active Solid State Dosimetry for Lunar EVA. J.D. Wrbanek,1 G.F. Fralick,1 S.Y. Wrbanek1 and L.Y. Chen2
1NASA Glenn Research Center, Instrumentation & Controls Division, Cleveland, Ohio. 2Ohio Aerospace Institute,
Brook Park, Ohio.

Introduction: The primary threat to astronauts luminescence using thin film coated scintillation detec-
from space radiation is high-energy charged particles, tors fabricated at NASA GRC as part of the Vehicle
such as electrons, protons, alpha and heavier particles, Systems Program, shown in figure 2.[6]
originating from galactic cosmic radiation (GCR), so- NASA GRC is leveraging these efforts to investi-
lar particle events (SPEs) and trapped radiation belts in gate small and large area MEMS devices for sensitivity
Earth orbit. There is also the added threat of secon- to radiation and to compare with commercial devices.
dary neutrons generated as the space radiation interacts If these initial results look promising as a path for the
with atmosphere, soil and structural materials.[1] design and fabrication of a prototype solid state do-
For Lunar exploration missions, the habitats and simeter, further testing would be required in conjunc-
transfer vehicles are expected to provide shielding tion with other researchers in the space radiation field
from standard background radiation. Unfortunately, over the next few years. The long term objective of
the Lunar Extravehicular Activity (EVA) suit is not this effort is to provide a compact, low power active
expected to afford such shielding. Astronauts need to electronic dosimetry system that would not be ad-
be aware of potentially hazardous conditions in their versely affected by radiation, with improved sensitivity
immediate area on EVA before a health and hardware and detection capability for real-time monitoring of
risk arises. These conditions would include fluctua- Lunar EVA conditions.
tions of the local radiation field due to changes in the
space radiation field and unknown variations in the
local surface composition. Should undue exposure
occur, knowledge of the dynamic intensity conditions
during the exposure will allow more precise diagnostic
Figure 1: Examples of NASA GRC SiC Fabrica-
assessment of the potential health risk to the exposed
tion: Defect free (far left) & typical (center left) SiC
individual.[2]
surfaces, and a SiC circuit (right).
Technology Need: An active personal dosimeter
for Low Earth Orbit (LEO) EVA use is specifically
recommended by NASA JSC’s Radiation Dosimetry
Working Group, and the National Council on Radia-
tion Protection and Measurements (NCRP) recom-
mends personal radiation monitoring for real-time dose
rate and integrated dose in LEO.[3] Compared to the
current LEO missions, the expeditions to the Moon Figure 2: Radiation Detector Development: NASA
will place crews at a significantly increased risk of GRC is attempting to verify claims of nuclear energy
hazardous radiation exposure. in sonoluminescence (left) using thin film coated scin-
Current radiation measurement and warning sys- tillation detectors fabricated at NASA GRC (right).
tems may be not adequate for the future Lunar mis-
References: [1] Johnson A.S., Badhwar G.D.,
sions, and currently instruments do not exist that can
Golightly M.J., Hardy A.C., Konradi A. and Yang
make these measurements and be incorporated into the
T.C. (1993) NASA TM-104782. [2] R. Turner (2000)
Lunar EVA suit. However, MEMS devices fabricated
LWS Community Workshop. [3] Vetter R.J., et al.
from silicon carbide (SiC) to conduct low-noise neu-
(2002) NCRP Report No. 142, 47-49. [4] Ruddy F.H.,
tron and alpha particle spectrometry have recently
Dulloo A.R., Seidel J.G., Palmour J.W. and Singh R.
been reported outside of the context of personal do-
(2003) Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A 505, 159–162.
simetry.[4]
[5] Hunter G.W., Neudeck P.G., Xu J., Lucko D.,
Development Effort: NASA GRC has been lead-
Trunek A., Artale M., Lampard P., Androjna D.,
ing the world in the development of SiC semiconduc-
Makel D., Ward B. and Liu C.C. (2004) Mat. Res. Soc.
tor technology, producing SiC semiconductor surfaces
Symp. Proc. 815, 287-297. [6] Wrbanek J.D., Fralick
of much higher quality than commercially available, as
G.C., Wrbanek S.Y. and Weiland K.E. (2005) NASA
shown in figure 1. These surfaces have demonstrated
TM-2005-213419, 46-7.
advantages over standard materials for other sensor
applications.[5] In other activities, NASA GRC is
attempting to verify claims of nuclear energy in sono-
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