Abstract
Electromagnetic environmental shielding is one of the main research topics for the development of aeronautical and space applications. Numerous research groups around the world study the problems that space systems and astronauts experience when these are subjected to space radiation. Despite the progress made so far, different proposals of advanced materials have been continuously proposed throughout the history of space career to protect space systems and astronauts against the solar particle events (SPE), cosmic rays galactic (GCRs), and proton-electron radiation (PERs). This chapter presents the recent advances made about space environmental shielding and that have been reported so far to visualize the future perspectives that this type of research must carry out so that future space voyage is completely reliable for space systems and astronauts. This research area is fully current, and its experimental success will depend on the work done by all space researchers and professionals.
TopIntroduction
The space environment has been considering commonly as a vacuum; however, it is composed of innumerable constituents such as photons, particle radiation, meteorites, neutral and ionized molecular and atomic interactions, variable thermal environment, and orbital debris, which regularly produce a decrease of performance or even catastrophic failures to aerospace systems (Piscane, 2008). The natural space environment is composed of the neutral thermosphere, thermal environment, plasma, meteorites, and orbital debris, solar environment, ionizing radiation, magnetic field, gravitational field, and mesosphere. In addition, the relative impact of the environmental effects of space have been determined according to the orbit in which the space system is located (Calders, 2018):
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Low Earth orbit (LEO) (Kleiman, 1995),
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Middle earth orbit (MEO),
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Geosynchronous equatorial orbit (GEO),
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International space station (ISS),
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Earth observation system (EOS),
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Tropical rainfall measuring mission (TRMM),
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Global positioning system (GPS), or
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The Defense satellite communications system (DSCS).
The effects considered in the aerospace environment are direct sunlight, gravity field, magnetic field, trapped radiation, solar particle events, galactic cosmic rays, orbital debris, meteorites, ionosphere, spacecraft electric charge, and neutral atmosphere (Piscane, 2008). According to the impact that these effects of the space environment have on a space application, NASA established a relative scale that ranges from zero to ten. This scale establishes that:
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the effect can be ignored (value of 0),
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the effect may or will cause upsets (value of 1 or 2, respectively),
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the effect may or will require design changes (value of 3 or 4, respectively),
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the effect may or will reduce mission effectiveness (value of 5 or 6, respectively),
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the effect may or will shorten the mission (value of 7 or 8, respectively),
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Moreover, the effect may or will deny the mission (value of 9 or 10, respectively).
The effects of the aerospace environment have had a significant impact on the performance of the following subsystems of a space shuttle, space stations, satellites, or aircraft: determination and control of altitude, avionics, electrical power systems, environmental control and life support, guided navigation and control, instrumentation, materials and/or structure, thermal control, as well as in telemetry, tracking, and communications.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Solar Wind: Steam of charged particles or plasma based on electrons, protons, and alpha particles with kinetic energy between 0.5 and 10 keV released from the upper atmosphere of the sun.
Electromagnetic Shielding: Physical property that reduces the electromagnetic field in space or material by blocking the field with barriers made of conductive and/or magnetic materials.
Van Allen Belt: Zone of charged energy particles mainly originated from the solar wind that is capturing by and held around a planet by its magnetic field.
Geomagnetic Storm: Temporary disturbance of the Earth’s magnetosphere caused by a solar wind shock wave and/or cloud of a magnetic field that interacts with the Earth’s magnetic field.
Low Earth Orbit: Earth-centered orbit with an altitude of 2,000 km or less where most man-made objects are in outer space.
Gamma Rays: Penetrating electromagnetic radiation arising from the radioactive decay of atomic nuclei.
Electronvolt (eV): Amount of kinetic energy gained (or lost) by a single electron accelerating from rest through an electric potential difference of one volt in a vacuum.
Cosmic Rays: Protons and high-energy atomic nuclei, originating from the sun and other distant galaxies, which move through space at almost the speed of light and produce showers of secondary particles (ionized particles (protons, electrons, muons, antiprotons, alpha particles, pions, positrons) and electromagnetic radiation or X-rays) that reach the surfaces.