Astronaut EVA exposure estimates from CAD model spacesuit geometry.

ABSTRACT

Ongoing assembly and maintenance activities at the International Space Station (ISS) require much more extravehicular activity (EVA) than did the earlier U.S. Space Shuttle missions. It is thus desirable to determine and analyze, and possibly foresee, as accurately as possible what radiation exposures crew members involved in EVAs will experience in order to minimize risks and to establish exposure limits that must not to be exceeded. A detailed CAD model of the U.S. Space Shuttle EVA Spacesuit, developed at NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC), is used to represent the directional shielding of an astronaut; it has detailed helmet and backpack structures, hard upper torso, and multilayer space suit fabric material. The NASA Computerized Anatomical Male and Female (CAM and CAF) models are used in conjunction with the space suit CAD model for dose evaluation within the human body. The particle environments are taken from the orbit-averaged NASA AP8 and AE8 models at solar cycle maxima and minima. The transport of energetic particles through space suit materials and body tissue is calculated by using the NASA LaRC HZETRN code for hadrons and a recently developed deterministic transport code, ELTRN, for electrons. The doses within the CAM and CAF models are determined from energy deposition at given target points along 968 directional rays convergent on the points and are evaluated for several points on the skin and within the body. Dosimetric quantities include contributions from primary protons, light ions, and electrons, as well as from secondary brehmsstrahlung and target fragments. Directional dose patterns are displayed as rays and on spherical surfaces by the use of a color relative intensity representation.