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Critical Need for Radiation Damage Tools for Space Missions

ORAL

Abstract

NASA has a new vision for space exploration in the 21st Century encompassing a broad range of human and robotic missions including missions to Moon, Mars and beyond. As a result, there is a focus on long duration space missions. NASA, as much as ever, is committed to the safety of the missions and the crew. Exposure from the hazards of severe space radiation in deep space long duration missions is `the show stopper.' Thus, protection from the hazards of severe space radiation is of paramount importance for the new vision. There is an overwhelming emphasis on the reliability issues for the mission and the habitat. Accurate risk assessments critically depend on the accuracy of the input information about the interaction of ions with materials, electronics and tissues. A huge amount of essential experimental information for all the ions in space, across the periodic table, for a wide range of energies of several (up to a Trillion) orders of magnitude are needed for the radiation protection engineering for space missions that is simply not available (due to the high costs) and probably never will be. Therefore, there is a compelling need to develop reliable accurate models of nuclear reactions and structures that form the basic input ingredients. State-of-the-art nuclear cross sections models have been developed at the NASA Langley Research Center, however a considerable number of tools need to be developed to alleviate the situation. The vital role and importance of nuclear physics for space missions will be discussed.

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Authors

  • Ram Tripathi

  • Raffaella De Vita

    Kent State University, Jefferson Lab, Ohio University, Mainz University, Mainz, Germany, Max-Planck-Institute for Nuclear Physics, Heidelberg, Germany, University of Washington, Noncommercial Partnership ``Scientific Instruments,'' Moscow, Russia, Lucent Technologies, North-West Technical University, St. Petersburg, Russia, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Purdue University, University of Florida, Wabash College and Purdue University, University of Oregon, Garnett McKeen Lab, Inc., Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science, Daejeon, South Korea, 305-600, Department of Physics, Lab. of Solid State Microstructure, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 200008, China, Department of Physics, Hampton University, Hampton, VA 23668, NESB, NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA 23681, Korea Research Institute of Stardards and Science, Daejeon, South Korea, 305-600, Department of Chemical Engineering, Sogang University, South Korea, 121-742, Indiana University, University of Chicago, LBNL, BNL/NSLS, KEK, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, LANL, University of Maryland, NIST, HMI, Harvard University, NCSU, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nebraska, University of Southern California, University of California at Los Angeles, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Institute for Advanced Physics, Konkuk University, Korea, SUNY College at Oneonta, Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Whitewater WI 53190, Cyclotron Institute, Texas A\&M University, College Station, TX, University of Texas at El Paso, University of Buenos Aires, Cyclotron Institute, Texas A\&M University, College Station, TX 77843, Simon Bolivar University, Caracas, Venezuela, Warsaw University, Warsaw, Poland, Institut de Recherches Subatomiques, Strasbourg, France, Florida State University, Harvard-Smithsonian CfA, CENPA University of Washington, Pasadena City College, California State University, Northridge, California State University, Dominguez Hills, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Jet Propulsion Lab, California Institute of Technology, University of California, Irvine, Instituto de F\'isica, UNAM, University of Toronto, Friedrich-Schiller-Universitaet Jena, Pennsylvania State University, NIH, Stanford University, CNR, Italy, University of Texas, Austin, University of Nevada, Reno, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Hanseo University, Division of Materials Science and Technology, KIST, Seoul, 130-791, Korea, Department of Physics, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon, 200-701, Korea, Department of Techno-marketing, Mokwon University, Taejeon, 301-729, Korea, Institute of Physics and Applied Physics, Yonsei University, Seoul, 120-749, Korea, UNAM, Mexico, JINR, Dubna, Univ. of Notre-Dame, ANL, SUNY at Stony Brook, Lund U., ORNL, Washington U., Warsaw, Poland, Saclay, France, Boston University, National Institute for Standards and Technology, Boulder, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Yale University, Florida International University, MIT, Saint Mary's University, TRI-University Meson Facility, Institute of Nuclear Physics, Prague, Czech Republic, Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Bucharest, Romania, Cyclotron Institute, Texas A\&M Univ., Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Wright Nuclear Structure Laboratory, Yale University, Tenn. Tech. Univ., Arizona State Univ., Ohio Univ., Tennessee Technologival Univ., ORNL Physics Division, Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, University of California, CEA, LLNL, Penn State Altoona, NC A&T State University, TUNL, NASA Langley Research Center, University of Iowa, UMD \& NASA/GSFC, NRC \& NASA/GSFC, NASA/GSFC, Academy at UAH, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, North Carolina State University, Union College, University of Hamburg, Iowa State University, Drake University, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, University of Arizona, UNC, Chapel Hill, NC, Tennessee Tech., Cookeville, TN, Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, NJ, ORNL, Oak Ridge, TN, ORAU, Oak Ridge, TN, Collegium of Natural Sciences, Eckerd College, RIKEN (Institute of Physical and Chemical Research), Department of Physics, Rikkyo University, Department of Physics, University of Tokyo, Department of Physics and Astronomy and National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, Michigan State University, Tokyo Inst. of Tech., Rikkyo Univ., Univ. of Tokyo, RIKEN, NSCL, Michigan State University, Dept. of Physics, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK, National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, Michigan State University, University of Surrey, UK, IRES CNRS Strasbourg, Planetary Science Institute, Steward Observatory, University of Oklahoma, Vatican Observatory, University of Rochester, UIUC, Washington State University, Johns Hopkins University, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare-Genova