Nuclear physicists are creating a facility on Earth to simulate cosmic rays

It will be needed to determine the degree of radiation risk for future manned interplanetary missions

An irradiation installation (simulator) to simulate the entire spectrum of cosmic rays that will affect astronauts flying to Mars, created by specialists from the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna.

Photo: nica.jinr.ru

An urgent task of space radiobiology is to assess the radiation risk for astronauts making interplanetary flights, in particular, for a flight to Mars. During the flight, a complex radiation field of radiation is formed inside the spacecraft, caused by the interaction of galactic cosmic radiation (GCR) with the device. In other words, astronauts can be affected by both direct cosmic rays penetrating through the body of the spacecraft, and the secondary radiation that is formed when direct rays interact with objects in the living compartment of the ship.

As reported by «MK» At the Laboratory of Radiation Biology, research is currently underway to create a galactic cosmic ray simulator that could reproduce such a mixed field. Postgraduate student at the Engineering Physics Institute of the University of Dubna and JINR LRB employee Ivan Gordeev, under the guidance of Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Gennady Timoshenko (he passed away in 2022), a computer model of such a simulator was developed. Based on the developed computer model, the installation parameters were obtained and a scheme for implementing the simulator on a special channel for applied research (SIMBO) within the NICA complex, which is being built on the basis of their institute.

GKI simulator model. Photo: JINR

In the future, the simulator will reproduce the mixed radiation field at a charged particle accelerator, based on the NICA complex, necessary for conducting radiobiological studies on laboratory animals, which will further allow to evaluate radiation risks for astronauts.