Radiation Shielding for Space Exploration: the MoMa - COUNT Programme

In the frame of the multi-disciplinary programme MoMa-COUNT [ 2 ], multi-functional protections for human space exploration are being investigated, paying particular attention to flexible materials, selected also for their single excellent structural, thermal and other environmental performances. These flexible materials in general have poorly known space radiation properties, whose lack of characterisation propagates the uncertainty about the shielding efficiency against the radiation environment on the whole spacecraft protection means. The consequent evaluation of their shielding efficiency, as well as of that of the overall shields, is based on flight experiments performed in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), onboard the International Space Station (ISS) and the re-entry capsule Foton. In parallel, supporting dedicated ground experiments in accelerators, as well as Monte Carlo simulations, are performed. This paper aims at presenting the more recent activities and results in this field, on the background of the past flight and ground experiments already reported in [ 1 ].Cross Reference: