Radiation and Plasma Environments for Lunar Missions
- Paper number
IAC-06-D5.2.05
- Author
Dr. Joe Minow, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)/Marshall Space Flight Center, United States
- Coauthor
Dr. David L. Edwards, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)/Marshall Space Flight Center, United States
- Coauthor
Mr. Richard L Altstatt, United States
- Coauthor
Ms. Anne M. Diekmann, United States
- Coauthor
Mr. William C. Blackwell, Jr., United States
- Coauthor
Ms. Katherine J. Harine, United States
- Year
2006
- Abstract
co-authors to be added Developing reliable space systems for exploration of the Moon and extended duration presence on the lunar surface requires analysis of potential system vulnerabilities to total ionizing dose, single event upsets, surface and bulk charging, and other effects on materials and systems due to exposure to the space radiation and plasma environment. Low inclination lunar transfer orbits from mid-latitude terrestrial launch sites to lunar orbit require both outbound and inbound trajectories through the Earth’s radiation belts where high energy ions generate upsets in vulnerable electronic systems and hot plasma environments produce surface and bulk charging of spacecraft systems. Lunar orbital and surface charged particle environments are dominated at the highest flux levels by the solar wind for 75% of each month and terrestrial magnetosheath and magnetotail plasma environments for the remaining 25% of the month. In addition to solar wind, the daytime plasma environments near the lunar surface include photoelectrons emitted when solar UV/EUV photons are absorbed by the lunar surface. Photoelectron energies are too low to damage materials but are an important plasma environment near the lunar surface to consider when evaluating dust charging effects on the Moon’s dayside hemisphere. Episodic energetic charged particle enhancements are also observed in both the lunar environment and in transit to the Moon from a variety of sources including solar energetic particle events, substorm events in the Earth’s magnetotail, and particle enhancements in the Earth’s foreshock region. These events may produce enhanced spacecraft charging environments and, in the case of the solar energetic particle events, may dominate the total ionizing dose for lunar missions. Finally, the penetrating nature of galactic cosmic rays and the highest energy solar energetic particle events are a serious concern for both human radiation dose and upset rates in electronic systems. This paper provides a survey of the relevant space radiation and plasma environments of importance to lunar mission design from the lowest ( few 10’s eV) plasma energies to the highest ( GeV) cosmic ray energies.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-06-D5.2.05.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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