Utilization of CAM,CAF, MAX,and FAX for space radiation analyses using HZETRN

To estimate astronaut health risk due to space radiation, one must have the ability to calculate various exposure-related quantities that are averaged over specific organs and tissue types. Such calculations require computational models of the ambient space radiation environment, particle transport, nuclear and atomic physics, and the human body. While significant efforts have been made to verify, validate, and quantify the uncertainties associated with many of these models and tools, relatively little work has focused on the uncertainties associated with the representation and utilization of the human phantoms. In this study, we first examine the anatomical properties of the Computerized Anatomical Man (CAM), Computerized Anatomical Female (CAF), Male Adult voXel (MAX), and Female Adult voXel (FAX) models by comparing the masses of various model tissues used to calculate effective dose to the reference values specified by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP). The MAX and FAX tissue masses are found to be in good agreement with the reference data, while major discrepancies are found between the CAM and CAF tissue masses and the reference data for almost all of the effective dose tissues. We next examine the distribution of target points used with the deterministic transport code HZETRN (High charge (Z) and Energy TRaNsport) to compute mass averaged exposure quantities. A numerical algorithm is presented and used to generate multiple point distributions of varying fidelity for many of the effective dose tissues identified in CAM, CAF, MAX, and FAX. The point distributions are used to compute mass averaged dose equivalent values under both a galactic cosmic ray (GCR) and solar particle event (SPE) environment impinging isotropically on three spherical aluminum shells with areal densities of 0.4 g/cm², 2.0 g/cm², and 10.0 g/cm². The dose equivalent values are examined to identify a recommended set of target points for each of the tissues and to further assess the differences between CAM, CAF, MAX, and FAX. It is concluded that the previously published CAM and CAF point distributions were significantly under-sampled and that the set of point distributions presented here should be adequate for future studies involving CAM, CAF, MAX, or FAX. It is also found that the errors associated with the mass and location of certain tissues in CAM and CAF have a significant impact on the mass averaged dose equivalent values, and it is concluded that MAX and FAX are more accurate than CAM and CAF for space radiation analyses.     

Solar particle event organ doses and dose equivalents for interplanetary crews: variations due to body size.

Proper assessments of spacecraft shielding requirements and concomitant estimates of risk to critical body organs of spacecraft crews from energetic space radiation require accurate, quantitative methods of characterizing the compositional changes in these radiation fields as they pass through the spacecraft and overlying tissue. When estimating astronaut radiation organ doses and dose equivalents it is customary to use the Computerized Anatomical Man (CAM) model of human geometry to account for body self-shielding. Usually, the distribution for the 50th percentile man (175 cm height; 70 kg mass) is used. Most male members of the U.S. astronaut corps are taller and nearly all have heights that deviate from the 175 cm mean. In this work, estimates of critical organ doses and dose equivalents for interplanetary crews exposed to an event similar to the October 1989 solar particle event are presented for male body sizes that vary from the 5th to the 95th percentiles. Overall the results suggest that calculations of organ dose and dose equivalent may vary by as much as approximately 15% as body size is varied from the 5th to the 95th percentile in the population used to derive the CAM model data.     

航天员受银河宇宙线辐射的剂量计算

在近地空间(LEO)和深空探测中,航天员遭受的辐射风险主要来自于银河宇宙线(GCR)照射.银河宇宙线的辐射剂量是航天员辐射风险评价的基础.国际放射防护委员会(ICRP)于2013年提出了新的航天员空间辐射剂量估算方法,以更准确给出空间重离子辐射的剂量.基于此方法,开发了宇宙线粒子在物质中输运的蒙特卡罗程序,并在程序中实现用中国成年男性人体数字模型来仿真航天员.采用该程序计算了粒子(Z=1~92)各向同性照射航天员时器官的通量-器官剂量转换因数,并估算出航天员在近地轨道空间受银河宇宙线辐射的剂量.     

Role of shielding in modulating the effects of solar particle events: Monte Carlo calculation of absorbed dose and DNA complex lesions in different organs.

Distributions of absorbed dose and DNA clustered damage yields in various organs and tissues following the October 1989 solar particle event (SPE) were calculated by coupling the FLUKA Monte Carlo transport code with two anthropomorphic phantoms (a mathematical model and a voxel model), with the main aim of quantifying the role of the shielding features in modulating organ doses. The phantoms, which were assumed to be in deep space, were inserted into a shielding box of variable thickness and material and were irradiated with the proton spectra of the October 1989 event. Average numbers of DNA lesions per cell in different organs were calculated by adopting a technique already tested in previous works, consisting of integrating into "condensed-history" Monte Carlo transport codes--such as FLUKA--yields of radiobiological damage, either calculated with "event-by-event" track structure simulations, or taken from experimental works available in the literature. More specifically, the yields of "Complex Lesions" (or "CL", defined and calculated as a clustered DNA damage in a previous work) per unit dose and DNA mass (CL Gy-1 Da-1) due to the various beam components, including those derived from nuclear interactions with the shielding and the human body, were integrated in FLUKA. This provided spatial distributions of CL/cell yields in different organs, as well as distributions of absorbed doses. The contributions of primary protons and secondary hadrons were calculated separately, and the simulations were repeated for values of Al shielding thickness ranging between 1 and 20 g/cm2. Slight differences were found between the two phantom types. Skin and eye lenses were found to receive larger doses with respect to internal organs; however, shielding was more effective for skin and lenses. Secondary particles arising from nuclear interactions were found to have a minor role, although their relative contribution was found to be larger for the Complex Lesions than for the absorbed dose, due to their higher LET and thus higher biological effectiveness.     

New equivalent sphere approximation for BFO dose estimation: Solar particle events

The use of a 5 cm tissue equivalent sphere model to obtain dose estimates for the blood-forming organs from energetic space radiations has been widespread for some time. Recent studies have noted that calculated doses obtained using the 5 cm equivalent sphere model were very conservatively overestimated when compared to those obtained with a detailed body geometry. Such conservatism may introduce significant shield weight penalties if used in spacecraft design studies. The use of detailed human geometry models will yield more accurate estimates of blood-forming organ doses and dose equivalents, but with a concomitant reduction in computational ease. In this work we propose a preliminary, yet new blood-forming organ equivalent sphere approximation for use in estimating SPE exposure and in shield design studies that is more realistic than the existing 5-cm approximation.     

Interplanetary crew doses and dose equivalents: variations among different bone marrow and skin sites.

Previously, calculations of bone marrow dose from the large solar particle event (SPE) of July 2000 were carried out using the BRYNTRN space radiation transport code and the computerized anatomical man (CAM) model. Results indicated that the dose for a bone marrow site in the mid-thigh might be twice as large as the dose for a site in the pelvis. These large variations may be significant for space radiation protection purposes, which traditionally use an average of many (typically 33) sites throughout the body. Other organs that cover large portions of the body, such as the skin, may also exhibit similar variations with doses differing from site to site. The skin traditionally uses an average of 32 sites throughout the body. Variations also occur from site to site among the dose equivalents, which may be important in determining stochastic effects. In this work, the magnitudes of dose and dose equivalent variations from site to site are investigated. The BRYNTRN and HZETRN transport codes and the CAM model are used to estimate bone marrow and skin doses and dose equivalents as a function of position in the body for several large solar particle events and annual galactic cosmic ray spectra from throughout the space era. These position-specific results are compared with the average values usually used for radiation protection purposes. Various thicknesses of aluminum shielding, representative of nominal spacecraft, are used in the analyses.     

Galactic cosmic ray radiation levels in spacecraft on interplanetary missions.

Using the Langley Research Center galactic cosmic ray (GCR) transport computer code (HZETRN) and the computerized anatomical man (CAM) model, crew radiation levels inside manned spacecraft on interplanetary missions are estimated. These radiation-level estimates include particle fluxes, LET (linear energy transfer) spectra, absorbed dose, and dose equivalent within various organs of interest in GCR protection studies. Changes in these radiation levels resulting from the use of various different types of shield materials are presented.     

Depth dose measurements with the Liulin-5 experiment inside the spherical phantom of the MATROSHKA-R project onboard the International Space Station

The Liulin-5 experiment is a part of the international project MATROSHKA-R on the Russian segment of the ISS, which uses a tissue-equivalent spherical phantom equipped with a set of radiation detectors. The objective of the MATROSHKA-R project is to provide depth dose distribution of the radiation field inside the sphere in order to get more information on the distribution of dose in a human body. Liulin-5 is a charged particle telescope using three silicon detectors. It measures time resolved energy deposition spectra, linear energy transfer (LET) spectra, particle flux, and absorbed doses of electrons, protons and heavy ions, simultaneously at three depths along the radius of the phantom. Measurements during the minimum of the solar activity in cycle 23 show that the average absorbed daily doses at 40 mm depth in the phantom are between 180 μGy/day and 220 μGy/day. The absorbed doses at 165 mm depth in the phantom decrease by a factor of 1.6–1.8 compared to the doses at 40 mm depth due to the self-shielding of the phantom from trapped protons. The average dose equivalent at 40 mm depth is 590 ± 32 μSV/day and the galactic cosmic rays (GCR) contribute at least 70% of the total dose equivalent at that depth. Shown is that due to the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) trapped protons asymmetry and the direction of Liulin-5 lowest shielding zone the dose rates on ascending and descending nodes in SAA are different. The data obtained are compared to data from other radiation detectors on ISS.     

Instrumentation for investigation of the depth-dose distribution by the Liulin-5 instrument of a human phantom on the Russian segment of ISS for estimation of the radiation risk during long term space flights.

Described is the Liulin-5 experiment and instrumentation, developed for investigation of the space radiation doses depth distribution in a human phantom on the Russian Segment of the International Space Station (ISS). Liulin-5 experiment is a part of the international project MATROSHKA-R on ISS. The experiment MATROSHKA-R is aimed to study the depth dose distribution at the sites of critical organs of the human body, using models of human body-anthropomorphic and spherical tissue-equivalent phantoms. The aim of Liulin-5 experiment is long term (4-5 years) investigation of the radiation environment dynamics inside the spherical tissue-equivalent phantom, mounted in different places of the Russian Segment of ISS. Energy deposition spectra, linear energy transfer spectra, flux and dose rates for protons and the biologically-relevant heavy ion components of the galactic cosmic radiation will be measured simultaneously with near real time resolution at different depths of the phantom by a telescope of silicon detectors. Data obtained together with data from other active and passive dosimeters will be used to estimate the radiation risk to the crewmembers, verify the models of radiation environment in low Earth orbit, validate body transport model and correlate organ level dose to skin dose. Presented are the test results of the prototype unit. The spherical phantom will be flown on the ISS in 2004 year and Liulin-5 experiment is planned for 2005 year.     

Simulations of absorbed dose on the phantom surface of MATROSHKA-R experiment at the ISS

The health risks associated with exposure to various components of space radiation are of great concern when planning manned long-term interplanetary missions, such as future missions to Mars. Since it is not possible to measure the radiation environment inside of human organs in deep space, simulations based on radiation transport/interaction codes coupled to phantoms of tissue equivalent materials are used. However, the calculated results depend on the models used in the codes, and it is therefore necessary to verify their validity by comparison with measured data. The goal of this paper is to compare absorbed doses obtained in the MATROSHKA-R experiment performed at the International Space Station (ISS) with simulations performed with the three-dimensional Monte Carlo Particle and Heavy-Ion Transport code System (PHITS). The absorbed dose was measured using passive detectors (packages of thermoluminescent and plastic nuclear track detectors) placed on the surface of the spherical tissue equivalent phantom MATROSHKA-R, which was exposed aboard the ISS in the Service Zvezda Module from December 2005 to September 2006. The data calculated by PHITS assuming an ISS shielding of 3 g/cm² and 5 g/cm² aluminum mass thickness were in good agreement with the measurements. Using a simplified geometrical model of the ISS, the influence of variations in altitude and wall mass thickness of the ISS on the calculated absorbed dose was estimated. The uncertainties of the calculated data are also discussed; the relative expanded uncertainty of absorbed dose in phantom was estimated to be 44% at a 95% confidence level.     

Pion and electromagnetic contribution to dose: Comparisons of HZETRN to Monte Carlo results and ISS data

Recent work has indicated that pion production and the associated electromagnetic (EM) cascade may be an important contribution to the total astronaut exposure in space. Recent extensions to the deterministic space radiation transport code, HZETRN, allow the production and transport of pions, muons, electrons, positrons, and photons. In this paper, the extended code is compared to the Monte Carlo codes, Geant4, PHITS, and FLUKA, in slab geometries exposed to galactic cosmic ray (GCR) boundary conditions. While improvements in the HZETRN transport formalism for the new particles are needed, it is shown that reasonable agreement on dose is found at larger shielding thicknesses commonly found on the International Space Station (ISS). Finally, the extended code is compared to ISS data on a minute-by-minute basis over a seven day period in 2001. The impact of pion/EM production on exposure estimates and validation results is clearly shown. The Badhwar–O’Neill (BO) 2004 and 2010 models are used to generate the GCR boundary condition at each time-step allowing the impact of environmental model improvements on validation results to be quantified as well. It is found that the updated BO2010 model noticeably reduces overall exposure estimates from the BO2004 model, and the additional production mechanisms in HZETRN provide some compensation. It is shown that the overestimates provided by the BO2004 GCR model in previous validation studies led to deflated uncertainty estimates for environmental, physics, and transport models, and allowed an important physical interaction (π/EM) to be overlooked in model development. Despite the additional π/EM production mechanisms in HZETRN, a systematic under-prediction of total dose is observed in comparison to Monte Carlo results and measured data.     

Using high-energy proton fluence to improve risk prediction for consequences of solar particle events

The potential for exposure to large solar particle events (SPEs) with high energy levels is a major concern during interplanetary transfer and extra-vehicular activities (EVAs) on the lunar and Mars surface. Previously, we have used data from the last 5 solar cycles to estimate percentiles of dose to a typical blood-forming organ (BFO) for a hypothetical astronaut in a nominally shielded spacecraft during a 120-d lunar mission. As part of this process, we made use of complete energy spectra for 34 large historical SPEs to calculate what the BFO mGy-Eq dose would have been in the above lunar scenario for each SPE. From these calculated doses, we then developed a prediction model for BFO dose based solely on an assumed value of integrated fluence above 30 MeV (Φ₃₀) for an otherwise unspecified future SPE. In this study, we reasoned that since BFO dose is determined more by protons with higher energies than by those with lower energies, more accurate BFO dose prediction models could be developed using integrated fluence above 60 (Φ₆₀) and above 100 MeV (Φ₁₀₀) as predictors instead of Φ₃₀. However to calculate the unconditional probability of a BFO dose exceeding a pre-specified limit (“BFO dose risk”), one must also take into account the distribution of the predictor (Φ_30,Φ₆₀, or Φ₁₀₀), as estimated from historical SPEs. But Φ₆₀ and Φ₁₀₀ have more variability, and less available historical information on which to estimate their distributions over many SPE occurrences, than does Φ₃₀. Therefore, when estimating BFO dose risk there is a tradeoff between increased BFO dose prediction at a given energy threshold and decreased accuracy of models for describing the distribution of that threshold over future SPEs as the threshold increases. Even when taking the second of these two factors into account, we still arrived at the conclusion that overall prediction improves as the energy level threshold increases from 30 to 60 to 100 MeV. These results can be applied to the development of approaches to improve radiation protection of astronauts and the optimization of mission planning for future space missions.     

Flight safety implications of the extreme solar proton event of 23 February 1956

There is considerable speculation about the effects at aircraft altitudes resulting from extreme solar proton events. The ground level event (GLE) of 23 February 1956 (GLE 5), remains the largest solar proton event of the neutron monitor era in terms of its influence on count rates at monitors near sea level. During this GLE the count rate was increased by as much as 4760% (15-min average) at the Leeds monitor relative to the count rate from galactic cosmic radiation (GCR). Two modern models of the event cumulative solar proton spectrum for this event, a 6-parameter fit in energy and a 4-parameter Band fit in rigidity, are compared with 1-h of GCR at solar minimum. While effective doses calculated with CARI-7A for both models at low geomagnetic cutoff rigidities are indeed high when compared with GCR and can exceed recommended exposure limits, both GLE spectra exhibit a much stronger dependence on cutoff rigidity than GCR, and a larger fraction of the dose from neutrons. At locations with cutoff rigidities above 4.2 and 6.4?GV, respectively, the GLE effective doses are smaller than the GCR hourly dose. At locations with cutoff rigidities above about 4?GV, GCR was the dominant source of exposure in 10?h or less at all altitudes examined. This suggests that if a similar event occurs in the future, low- and mid-latitude flights at modern jet flight altitudes could be well-protected by Earth’s magnetic field.     

Method for the prediction of the effective dose equivalent to the crew of the International Space Station

This paper describes a methodology for assessing the pre-mission exposure of space crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in terms of an effective dose equivalent. In this approach, the PHITS Monte Carlo code was used to assess the particle transport of galactic cosmic radiation (GCR) and trapped radiation for solar maximum and minimum conditions through an aluminum shield thickness. From these predicted spectra, and using fluence-to-dose conversion factors, a scaling ratio of the effective dose equivalent rate to the ICRU ambient dose equivalent rate at a 10 mm depth was determined. Only contributions from secondary neutrons, protons, and alpha particles were considered in this analysis.     

Nuclear fragmentation database for GCR transport code development

A critical need for NASA is the ability to accurately model the transport of heavy ions in the Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCR) through matter, including spacecraft walls, equipment racks, etc. Nuclear interactions are of great importance in the GCR transport problem, as they can cause fragmentation of the incoming ion into lighter ions. Since the radiation dose delivered by a particle is proportional to the square of (charge/velocity), fragmentation reduces the dose delivered by incident ions. The other mechanism by which dose can be reduced is ionization energy loss, which can lead to some particles stopping in the shielding. This is the conventional notion of shielding, but it is not applicable to human spaceflight since the particles in the GCR tend to be too energetic to be stopped in the relatively thin shielding that is possible within payload mass constraints. Our group has measured a large number of fragmentation cross sections, intended to be used as input to, or for validation of, NASA’s radiation transport models. A database containing over 200 charge-changing cross sections and over 2000 fragment production cross sections has been compiled. In this report, we examine in detail the contrast between fragment measurements at large acceptance and small acceptance. We use output from the PHITS Monte Carlo code to test our assumptions using as an example ⁴⁰Ar data (and simulated data) at a beam energy of 650 MeV/nucleon. We also present preliminary analysis in which isotopic resolution was attained for beryllium fragments produced by beams of ¹⁰B and ¹¹B. Future work on the experimental data set will focus on extracting and interpreting production cross sections for light fragments.     

Cosmic radiation exposure of aircraft occupants on simulated high-latitude flights during solar proton events from 1 January 1986 through 1 January 2008

From 1 January 1986 through 1 January 2008, GOES satellites recorded 170 solar proton events. For 169 of these events, we estimated effective and equivalent dose rates and doses of galactic cosmic radiation (GCR) and solar cosmic radiation (SCR), received by aircraft occupants on simulated high-latitude flights. Dose rate and dose estimates that follow are for altitudes 30, 40, 50, and 60 kft, in that order.     

Solar particle events observed at Mars: dosimetry measurements and model calculations

During the period from March 13, 2002 to mid-September, 2002, six solar particle events (SPE) were observed by the MARIE instrument onboard the Odyssey Spacecraft in Martian Orbit. These events were observed also by the GOES 8 satellite in Earth orbit, and thus represent the first time that the same SPE have been observed at these separate locations. The characteristics of these SPE are examined, given that the active regions of the solar disc from which the event originated can usually be identified. The dose rates at Martian orbit are calculated, both for the galactic and solar components of the ionizing particle radiation environment. The dose rates due to galactic cosmic rays (GCR) agree well with the HZETRN model calculations.     

Investigation of dose and flux dynamics in the Liulin-5 dosimeter of the tissue-equivalent phantom onboard the Russian segment of the International Space Station.

Described is the Liulin-5 active dosimetric telescope designed for measurement of the space radiation dose depth-distribution in a human phantom on the Russian Segment of the International Space Station (ISS). The Liulin-5 experiment is a part of the international project MATROSHKA-R on ISS. The MATROSHKA-R project is aimed to study the depth-dose distribution at the sites of critical organs of the human body, using models of human body-anthropomorphic and spherical tissue-equivalent phantoms. The aim of Liulin-5 experiment is a long term (4-5 years) investigation of the radiation environment dynamics inside the spherical tissue-equivalent phantom, mounted in different compartments. Energy deposition spectra, linear energy transfer spectra, and flux and dose rates for charged particles will be measured simultaneously with near real time resolution at different depths of the phantom by means of three silicon detectors. Data obtained together with data from other active and passive dosimeters will be used to estimate the radiation risk to the crewmembers, which verify the models of radiation environment in low Earth orbit. Presented are the test results of the prototype unit. Liulin-5 will be flown on the ISS in the year 2003.     

Anatomical models for space radiation applications: an overview.

Extremely detailed computerized anatomical male (CAM) and female (CAF) models that have been developed for use in space radiation analyses are discussed and reviewed. Recognizing that the level of detail may currently be inadequate for certain radiological applications, one of the purposes of this paper is to elicit specific model improvements or requirements from the scientific user-community. Methods and rationale are presented which describe the approach used in the Space Shuttle program to extrapolate dosimetry measurements (skin doses) to realistic astronaut body organ doses. Several mission scenarios are presented which demonstrate the utility of the anatomical models for obtaining specific body organ exposure estimates and can be used for establishing cancer morbidity and mortality risk assessments. These exposure estimates are based on the trapped Van Allen belt and galactic cosmic radiation environment models and data from the major historical solar particle events.     

Organ shielding and doses in Low-Earth orbit calculated for spherical and anthropomorphic phantoms

Humans in space are exposed to elevated levels of radiation compared to ground. Different sources contribute to the total exposure with galactic cosmic rays being the most important component. The application of numerical and anthropomorphic phantoms in simulations allows the estimation of dose rates from galactic cosmic rays in individual organs and whole body quantities such as the effective dose. The male and female reference phantoms defined by the International Commission on Radiological Protection and the hermaphrodite numerical RANDO phantom are voxel implementations of anthropomorphic phantoms and contain all organs relevant for radiation risk assessment. These anthropomorphic phantoms together with a spherical water phantom were used in this work to translate the mean shielding of organs in the different anthropomorphic voxel phantoms into positions in the spherical phantom. This relation allows using a water sphere as surrogate for the anthropomorphic phantoms in both simulations and measurements. Moreover, using spherical phantoms in the calculation of radiation exposure offers great advantages over anthropomorphic phantoms in terms of computational time.