WEEK 6

Shielding the people in your space settlement from radiation

OBJECTIVE: to analyze how to shield inhabitants of space settlements from radiation.

CONTENT AREAS: electromagnetic radiation, absorption of radiation

In this lesson you will decide on how to shield people in space settlements from harmful radiation.

how the active and passive shielding works
what is the best way to shield people.

To shield the people that are going to live in your Space Settlement these are the issues you should consider:

1. Characterization of the radiation in space and their uncertainties for galactic cosmic radiation and solar particle events (SPEs)

2. Basic cross sections for primary particle interactions and formation of fragmentation products.

3. Investigate shielding materials and radiation risk models.

Current studies indicate that the particle distribution and energies that occur behind the various potential shield materials are critically dependent on the fragmentation and secondary particle production that occurs when shielding material is struck by radiation. At present there is some research going on in studying shielding materials with particle beams, but much more is needed.

Two options can be considered for shielding in space: active or passive shielding. The passive approach of bulk shielding was chosen for the NASA low-earth-orbit missions and and resulted in a reliable system at reasonable cost. An active system would require the use of very large magnetic field strengths to deflect conducting systems and would involve the associated complexity of such systems. Since cosmic radiation is essentially isotropic, a fully encompassing magnetic shield would be desirable but from a practical point of view would be very difficult to achieve.

Teacher Led Activities

Physics lab on radiation shielding for High School students.

Related links:

Study the shielding

Assignments:

PROJECT LEADER: Leads a group discussion on how to best achieve shielding from radiation for the safety of the people in space colonies.
SCIENTIST: Works closely with the researcher, and studies alternatives for shielding from radiation.
ARTIST: Adds the shielding sketch to the design of space settlement.
RESEARCHER: Learns about radiation and active/passive shielding
TASKMASTER: Gathers materials and writes the section on shielding for the overall report.
Take the Quiz for Week 6
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Author: Tugrul Sezen
[email protected]

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Curator: Al Globus
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