Comparison of the transport codes HZETRN,HETC and FLUKA for galactic cosmic rays

The HZETRN deterministic radiation code is one of several tools developed to analyze the effects of harmful galactic cosmic rays (GCR) and solar particle events on mission planning and shielding for astronauts and instrumentation. This paper is a comparison study involving the two Monte Carlo transport codes, HETC–HEDS and FLUKA and the deterministic transport code, HZETRN. Each code is used to transport an ion from the 1977 solar minimum GCR spectrum impinging upon a 20 g/cm² aluminum slab followed by a 30 g/cm² water slab. This research is part of a systematic effort of verification and validation to quantify the accuracy of HZETRN and determine areas where it can be improved. Comparisons of dose and dose equivalent values at various depths in the water slab are presented in this report. This is followed by a comparison of the proton and forward, backward and total neutron flux at various depths in the water slab. Comparisons of the secondary light ion ²H, ³H, ³He and ⁴He fluxes are also examined.     

Desperately seeking life on Mars

Humans appear to be obsessed with the idea of finding life on Mars and have latched on to any evidence—however improbable—that might support its existence. Charting the history of the often deceptive scientific (not to mention literary) findings made about Mars, this viewpoint suggests that our desire to find extraterrestrial life says more about the human need for companionship and communication than about the true past of the planet. Nevertheless, ESA's Mars Express should give us a better understanding of the true likelihood of life ever having existed there after its launch in 2003.     

Use the water: In-situ resource technology for icy-surface landers

Robotic landers serve vital reconnaissance roles in the exploration of planetary surfaces, but are constrained by deliverable payload size and environment survivability. Although the Mars exploration rovers (MER) have shown incredible survivability, their solar power source limits the science output per sol. Future landers will be larger, and will incorporate more sophisticated data-collection and analysis packages, which will likely bring with them an increased demand for power. Anticipating this demand, we propose an innovative hybrid power system combining a primary radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) with a secondary alkaline fuel cell. This combination provides the opportunity to utilize more effectively the energy produced by the RTG, to produce and store O₂ and H₂ via electrolysis of melted ice, and use this obtained O₂ and H₂ in a variety of ways, including as fuel for a regenerative fuel cell. This hybrid system has applications ranging from planetary rovers and deep-space probes to human habitats.     

Giant Planet Ionospheres and Thermospheres: The Importance of Ion-Neutral Coupling

Planetary upper atmospheres-coexisting thermospheres and ionospheres-form an important boundary between the planet itself and interplanetary space. The solar wind and radiation from the Sun may react with the upper atmosphere directly, as in the case of Venus. If the planet has a magnetic field, however, such interactions are mediated by the magnetosphere, as in the case of the Earth. All of the Solar System’s giant planets have magnetic fields of various strengths, and interactions with their space environments are thus mediated by their respective magnetospheres. This article concentrates on the consequences of magnetosphere-atmosphere interactions for the physical conditions of the thermosphere and ionosphere. In particular, we wish to highlight important new considerations concerning the energy balance in the upper atmosphere of Jupiter and Saturn, and the role that coupling between the ionosphere and thermosphere may play in establishing and regulating energy flows and temperatures there. This article also compares the auroral activity of Earth, Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus. The Earth’s behaviour is controlled, externally, by the solar wind. But Jupiter’s is determined by the co-rotation or otherwise of the equatorial plasmasheet, which is internal to the planet’s magnetosphere. Despite being rapid rotators, like Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus appear to have auroral emissions that are mainly under solar (wind) control. For Jupiter and Saturn, it is shown that Joule heating and “frictional” effects, due to ion-neutral coupling can produce large amounts of energy that may account for their high exospheric temperatures.     

The effect of space radiation of the nervous system.

The long-term effects of irradiation by accelerated heavy ions on the structure and function of the nervous system have not been studied extensively. Although the adult brain is relatively resistant to low LET radiation, cellular studies indicate that individual heavy ions can produce serious membrane lesions and multiple chromatin breaks. Capillary hemorrhages may follow high LET particle irradiation of the developing brain as high RBE effects. Evidence has been accumulating that the glial system and blood-brain barrier (BBB) are relatively sensitive to injury by ionizing radiation. While DNA repair is active in neural systems, it may be assumed that a significant portion of this molecular process is misrepair. Since the expression of cell lethality usually requires cell division, and nerve cells have an extremely low rate of division, it is possible that some of the characteristic changes of premature aging may represent a delayed effect of chromatin misrepair in brain. Altered microcirculation, decreased local metabolism, entanglement and reduction in synaptic density, premature loss of neurons, myelin degeneration, and glial proliferation are late signs of such injuries. HZE particles are very efficient in producing carcinogenic cell transformation, reaching a peak for iron particles. The promotion of viral transformation is also efficient up to an energy transfer of approximately 300 keV/micron. The RBE for carcinogenesis in nerve tissues remains unknown. On the basis of available information concerning HZE particle flux in interplanetary space, only general estimates of the magnitude of the effects of long-term spaceflight on some nervous system parameters may be constructed.     

Physical Causes of Solar Activity

The magnetic fields that dominate the structure of the Sun's atmosphere are controlled by processes in the solar interior, which cannot be directly observed. Magnetic activity is found in all stars with deep convective envelopes: young and rapidly rotating stars are very active but cyclic activity only appears in slow rotators. The Sun's 11-year activity cycle corresponds to a 22-year magnetic cycle, since the sunspot fields (which are antisymmetric about the equator) reverse at each minimum. The record of magnetic activity is aperiodic and is interrupted by episodes of reduced activity, such as the Maunder Minimum in the seventeenth century, when sunspots almost completely disappeared. The proxy record from cosmogenic isotopes shows that similar grand minima recur at intervals of around 200 yr. The Sun's large-scale field is generated by dynamo action rather than by an oscillator. Systematic magnetic cycles are apparently produced by a dynamo located in a region of weak convective overshoot at the base of the convection zone, where there are strong radial gradients in the angular velocity . The crucial parameter (the dynamo number) increases with increasing and kinematic (linear) theory shows that dynamo action can set in at an oscillatory (Hopf) bifurcation that is probably subcritical. Although it has been demonstrated that the whole process works in a self-consistent model, most calculations have relied on mean-field dynamo theory. This approach is physically plausible but can only be justified under conditions that do not apply in the Sun. Still, mean-field dynamos do reproduce the butterfly diagram and other key features of the solar cycle. An alternative approach is to study generic behaviour in low-order models, which exhibit two forms of modulation, associated with symmetry-breaking and with reduced activity. Comparison with observed behaviour suggests that modulation of the solar cycle is indeed chaotic, i.e. deterministically rather than stochastically driven.     

The MESSENGER Gamma-Ray and Neutron Spectrometer

A Gamma-Ray and Neutron Spectrometer (GRNS) instrument has been developed as part of the science payload for NASA’s Discovery Program mission to the planet Mercury. Mercury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) launched successfully in 2004 and will journey more than six years before entering Mercury orbit to begin a one-year investigation. The GRNS instrument forms part of the geochemistry investigation and will yield maps of the elemental composition of the planet surface. Major elements include H, O, Na, Mg, Si, Ca, Ti, Fe, K, and Th. The Gamma-Ray Spectrometer (GRS) portion detects gamma-ray emissions in the 0.1- to 10-MeV energy range and achieves an energy resolution of 3.5 keV full-width at half-maximum for ⁶⁰Co (1332 keV). It is the first interplanetary use of a mechanically cooled Ge detector. Special construction techniques provide the necessary thermal isolation to maintain the sensor’s encapsulated detector at cryogenic temperatures (90 K) despite the intense thermal environment. Given the mission constraints, the GRS sensor is necessarily body-mounted to the spacecraft, but the outer housing is equipped with an anticoincidence shield to reduce the background from charged particles. The Neutron Spectrometer (NS) sensor consists of a sandwich of three scintillation detectors working in concert to measure the flux of ejected neutrons in three energy ranges from thermal to ∼7 MeV. The NS is particularly sensitive to H content and will help resolve the composition of Mercury’s polar deposits. This paper provides an overview of the Gamma-Ray and Neutron Spectrometer and describes its science and measurement objectives, the design and operation of the instrument, the ground calibration effort, and a look at some early in-flight data.     

Lunar astrobiology: a review and suggested laboratory equipment

In October of 2005, the European Space Agency (ESA) and Alcatel Alenia Spazio released a "call to academia for innovative concepts and technologies for lunar exploration." In recent years, interest in lunar exploration has increased in numerous space programs around the globe, and the purpose of our study, in response to the ESA call, was to draw on the expertise of researchers and university students to examine science questions and technologies that could support human astrobiology activity on the Moon. In this mini review, we discuss astrobiology science questions of importance for a human presence on the surface of the Moon and we provide a summary of key instrumentation requirements to support a lunar astrobiology laboratory.     

Ionospheric wave signature of the American solar eclipse on 21 August 2017 in Europe

A total solar eclipse occurred on 21 August 2017, with the path of totality starting over the North Pacific Ocean, crossing North-America and ending over the Mid-Atlantic Ocean slightly North of the equator. As a result, a partial solar eclipse was observed as far away as the Western Europe. The ionospheric observatory in Dourbes, Belgium, was right on the edge of the partial eclipse and was exposed for a very short period of only few minutes just before the local sunset. High-resolution ionospheric measurements were carried out at the observatory with collocated digital ionosonde and GNSS receivers. The data analysis revealed a clear wave-like pattern in the ionosphere that can be seen arriving before the local onset of the eclipse. The paper details the analysis and provides a possible explanation of the observed phenomenon.