Estimates of HZE particle contributions to SPE radiation exposures on interplanetary missions.
Estimates of radiation doses resulting from possible HZE (high energy heavy ion) components of solar particle events (SPEs) are presented for crews of manned interplanetary missions. The calculations assume a model spectrum obtained by folding measured solar flare HZE particle abundances with the measured energy spectra of SPE alpha particles. These hypothetical spectra are then transported through aluminum spacecraft shielding. The results, presented as estimates of absorbed dose and dose equivalent, indicate that HZE components by themselves are not a major concern for crew protection but should be included in any overall risk assessment. The predictions are found to be sensitive to the assumed spectral hardness parameters.
IMP-8 observations of the spectra, composition, and variability of solar heavy ions at high energies relevant to manned space missions.
In more than 25 years of almost continuous observations, the University of Chicago's Cosmic Ray Telescope (CRT) on IMP-8 has amassed a unique database on high-energy solar heavy ions of potential relevance to manned spaceflight. In the very largest particle events, IMP-8/CRT has even observed solar Fe ions above the Galactic cosmic ray background up to approximately 800 MeV/nucleon, an energy sufficiently high to penetrate nearly 25 g/cm2 of shielding. IMP-8/CRT observations show that high-energy heavy-ion spectra are often surprisingly hard power laws, without the exponential roll-offs suggested by stochastic acceleration fits to lower energy measurements alone. Also, in many solar particle events the Fe/O ratio grows with increasing energy, contrary to the notion that ions with higher mass-to-charge ratios should be less abundant at higher energies. Previous studies of radiation hazards for manned spaceflight have often assumed heavy-ion composition and steeply-falling energy spectra inconsistent with these observations. Conclusions based on such studies should therefore be re-assessed. The significant event-to-event variability observed in the high-energy solar heavy ions also has important implications for strategies in building probabilistic models of solar particle radiation hazards.
Integrated two-beam antenna array featuring dual-circular polarization
A concept of an integrated antenna array featuring two independent beams and dual circular polarization has been described. The antenna array consists of two radiating elements which are excited at two orthogonally placed feeding ports with the use of four appropriately connected 3-dB/90° directional couplers. Therefore, such an array generates two symmetrically located beams having right-handed circular polarization (RHCP) and identical two beams having left-handed circular polarization (LHCP). The presented concept has been verified by the design and measurements of an antenna array operating at 2.4 GHz frequency range.