Speaker
Description
The galactic cosmic ray (GCR) background presents creates a hostile, high-dose environment for astronauts and the electronics they rely. While the GCR spectrum extends to 10’s of GeV/nucleon, much of the dose in electronics is attributable to the final slowing of heavy ion at the end of their path, e.g., the “Bragg peak”, and the location and magnitude of the Bragg peak is in turn highly sensitive to the stopping power. In contrast, long range dose attributable to the “neutron albedo” from backscattered neutrons arising from high-energy GCR cascades present a chronic health concern for long-term human habitation the surface of the moon and Mars. Researchers working to address these concerns rely on robust nuclear data to guide the modeling of both electronic stopping powers and neutron scattering. However, recent work by Sigmund and Baldez highlight the need for improved electronics stopping power data. In this talk I will review the charged-particle and neutron data needs relevant to space exploration and present a framework for how to address them through a program heavy-ion and neutron beams using the LBNL 88-Inch cyclotron. This work is supported .by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231 for the US Nuclear Data Program.