Reliability Methods for Shield Design Process

摘要

Providing protection against the hazards of space radiation is a major challenge to the exploration andrndevelopment of space. The great cost of added radiation shielding is a potential limiting factor in deep spacernoperations. In this enabling technology, we have developed methods for optimized shield design over multi-segmentedrnmissions involving multiple work and living areas in the transport and duty phase of space missions. The total shieldrnmass over all pieces of equipment and habitats is optimized subject to career dose and dose rate constraints. Anrnimportant component of this technology is the estimation of two most commonly identified uncertainties in radiationrnshield design, the shielding properties of materials used and the understanding of the biological response of thernastronaut to the radiation leaking through the materials into the living space. The largest uncertainty, of course, is in thernbiological response to especially high charge and energy (HZE) ions of the galactic cosmic rays. These uncertaintiesrnare blended with the optimization design procedure to formulate reliability-based methods for shield design processes.rnThe details of the methods will be discussed.