Studies of the radiation environment on the Mars surface using the Geant4 toolkit

Jun-Liang Chen; Su-Jun Yun; Tie-Kuang Dong; Zhong-Zhou Ren; Xiao-Ping Zhang

doi:10.1007/s41365-022-00987-2

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Studies of the radiation environment on the Mars surface using the Geant4 toolkit

ACCELERATOR, RAY TECHNOLOGY AND APPLICATIONS | Updated：2022-02-17

- Studies of the radiation environment on the Mars surface using the Geant4 toolkit
- Nuclear Science and Techniques Vol. 33, Issue 1, Article number: 11(2022)
- Affiliations：
  
  1.Key Laboratory of Modern Acoustics and Department of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China
  2.School of Electronic Engineering, Nanjing XiaoZhuang University, Hongjing Road, Nanjing 211171, China.
  3.Key Laboratory of Dark Matter and Space Astronomy, Purple Mountain Observatory, CAS, 2 West Beijing Rood, Nanjing 210008, China
  4.School of Physics Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Siping Rood 1239, Shanghai 200092, China
  5.State Key Laboratory of Lunar and Planetary Sciences, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macao 999078, China
- Author bio：
  
  chenjunliang_upc@163.com
  tkdong@pmo.ac.cn
  zren@tongji.edu.cn
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1007/s41365-022-00987-2
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Jun-Liang Chen, Su-Jun Yun, Tie-Kuang Dong, et al. Studies of the radiation environment on the Mars surface using the Geant4 toolkit. [J]. Nuclear Science and Techniques 33(1):11(2022)
DOI：

Jun-Liang Chen, Su-Jun Yun, Tie-Kuang Dong, et al. Studies of the radiation environment on the Mars surface using the Geant4 toolkit. [J]. Nuclear Science and Techniques 33(1):11(2022) DOI： 10.1007/s41365-022-00987-2.

摘要

Abstract

The radiation environment on the surface of Mars is a potential threat for future manned exploration missions to this planet. In this study, a simple geometrical model was built for simulating the radiation environment on the Mars surface caused by galactic cosmic rays (GCRs); the model was built and studied using the Geant4 toolkit. The simulation results were compared with the data reported by a radiation assessment detector (RAD). The simulated spectra of neutrons, photons, protons,α, particles, and particle groups ,Z,=3–5,Z,=6–8,Z,=9–13, and ,Z,=14–24 were in a reasonable agreement with the RAD data. However, for deuterons, tritons, and ,3,He, the simulations yielded much smaller values than for the corresponding RAD data. In addition, the particles’ spectra within the 90° zenith angle were also obtained. Based on these spectra, we calculated the radiation dose that would have been received by an average human body on Mars. The distribution of the dose throughout the human body was not uniform. The absorbed and equivalent doses for the brain were the highest among all of the organs, reaching 62.0±1.7 mGy/y and 234.1±8.0 mSv/y, respectively. The average absorbed and equivalent doses for the entire body were approximately 44 mGy/y and 153 mSv/y, respectively. Further analysis revealed that most of the radiation dose was owing to ,α, particles, protons, and heavy ions. We then studied the shielding effect of the Mars soil with respect to the radiation. The body dose decreased significantly with increasing soil depth. At the depth of 1.5 m, the effective dose for the entire body was 17.9±2.4 mSv/y, lower than the dose limit for occupational exposure. At the depth of 3 m, the effective dose to the body was 2.7±1.0 mSv/y, still higher than the accepted dose limit.

关键词

Keywords

Galactic cosmic raysRadiation environment of the MarsAbsorbed doseEquivalent doseGeant4

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