Shielding Strategies for Human Space Exploration

A group of twenty-nine scientists and engineers convened a 'Workshop on Shielding Strategies for Human Space Exploration' at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. The provision of shielding for a Mars mission or a Lunar base from the hazards of space radiations is a critical technology since astronaut radiation safety depends on it and shielding safety factors to control risk uncertainty appear to be great. The purpose of the workshop was to define requirements for the development and evaluation of high performance shield materials and designs and to develop ideas regarding approaches to radiation shielding. The workshop was organized to review the recent experience on shielding strategies gained in studies of the 'Space Exploration Initiative (SEI),' to review the current knowledge base for making shield assessment, to examine a basis for new shielding strategies, and to recommend a strategy for developing the required technologies for a return to the moon or for Mars exploration. The uniqueness of the current workshop arises from the expected long duration of the missions without the protective cover of the geomagnetic field in which the usually small and even neglected effects of the galactic cosmic rays (GCR) can no longer be ignored. It is the peculiarity of these radiations for which the inter-action physics and biological action are yet to be fully understood.