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How do you protect your spacecraft from space weather and radiation?

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Space weather and radiation are two major threats to the safety and performance of spacecraft. They can damage the electronics, degrade the materials, and harm the crew of any vehicle that orbits or travels beyond Earth. In this article, you will learn how aerospace engineers design and test spacecraft systems to protect them from these hazards.

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Optimal orbits and trajectories:

Choosing routes that avoid high-radiation areas is crucial. This approach minimizes exposure, protecting both the spacecraft's electronics and crew from harmful space weather effects.### *Radiation-tolerant components:Using specialized electronics that can withstand radiation ensures system reliability. Incorporate error detection and correction codes to address potential malfunctions, maintaining operational integrity.

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1 Space weather

Space weather is a term used to describe the variations in the solar wind, magnetic field, and radiation emitted by stars, which can affect our atmosphere, magnetosphere, and ionosphere. This can interfere with communication, navigation, and power systems, as well as cause electrostatic charging, heating, drag, and orbital decay for spacecraft. To protect spacecraft from space weather, engineers have several methods at their disposal. For example, they can choose optimal orbits and trajectories that avoid regions of high radiation or plasma density. Additionally, shielding the spacecraft with materials such as aluminum, polyethylene or carbon composites can absorb or deflect charged particles and electromagnetic waves. Furthermore, hardening the electronics and software with techniques like radiation-tolerant components, error detection and correction codes, watchdog timers and redundancy can prevent or correct errors caused by single event effects. Finally, monitoring and forecasting space weather conditions with sensors and models that provide alerts and warnings can also be beneficial.

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2 Space radiation

Space radiation is a term used to refer to high-energy particles and rays that originate from outside the solar system, such as galactic cosmic rays, supernova remnants, and pulsars. These particles and rays can penetrate deep into spacecraft and the human body, causing ionization, displacement, and biological damage. Additionally, space radiation can induce secondary particles and rays when they interact with materials, making for a complex radiation environment. To protect spacecraft from space radiation, engineers use several methods. For example, they can estimate the radiation dose and risk for the mission using models and simulations like GEANT4, SPENVIS, or HZETRN. Additionally, they can select materials and configurations that minimize the mass and thickness of shielding while maximizing attenuation and moderation of the radiation. Operational countermeasures like scheduling activities during low solar activity periods or avoiding high inclination orbits can also reduce exposure time and increase distance from radiation sources. Finally, medical countermeasures such as pharmacological agents or gene therapy can mitigate acute and chronic effects of the radiation on crew health.

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3 Spacecraft systems engineering

Spacecraft systems engineering is the discipline that applies the principles and methods of engineering to design, develop, integrate, test, operate, and maintain spacecraft systems that can meet the mission objectives and requirements. It involves a systematic and iterative process that covers all the phases of the spacecraft life cycle, from the concept definition to the disposal or decommissioning. It also requires a multidisciplinary and collaborative approach that coordinates the efforts of various engineering domains, such as mechanical, electrical, thermal, propulsion, communication, and software engineering.

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Alexander R.

Aerospace | Automotive | Mechanical Engineering | PSM? I & PSPO? I ?? AgilePM? | Architecture & Systems Engineering | MBSE enthusiast | Lean Six Sigma | Product Rendering | Virtual Reality ?? & Concurrent Engineering
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Nowadays Space Agencies like e.g. ESA and NASA encourage engineering teams, suppliers and contractors to move from the traditional "document-based" system engineering to a "model-based" systems engineering path. This new setup, a "model centric" approach, is promoted as MBSE where all engineering disciplines are connected and communicate within one system or connected systems (systems-of-systems) and then tap into a "single source of truth". This holistic model approach has many advantages compared to classic systems engineering, one is that there will no longer worked in silos. Many industries these days look into the adaptation of MBSE, since it has proven to be very cost effective within the aerospace industry.

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4 Design and testing

One of the main tasks of spacecraft systems engineering is to design and test the systems that can protect the spacecraft from space weather and radiation. This involves defining the mission scenario and environment, identifying potential hazards and failure modes, establishing performance requirements and design criteria, selecting and sizing components and materials, simulating and analyzing the behavior of the systems, and testing and validating the functionality in laboratory and field conditions. For example, you might need to consider solar panels, batteries, processors, hulls, MATLAB, ANSYS, COMSOL, vacuum chambers, thermal cyclers, or particle accelerators in order to ensure a suitable trade-off between protection, mass, power, cost and radiation tolerance.

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Charlie Y.

Space Engineering Safety & High Quality Transformation of the UK Space Sector
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And for different product types, there are standard sequences of testing from validating individual components, their inclusion in sub-assemblies and sub-systems, all the way through s/c assembly, transportation and launch. Given that at a component level, high-end products can have a usable life defined by operational cycles, direct testing is critical towards helping the engineer understand how product cycling degrades performance.

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Paul A. Burke, PhD

Space Physicist at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory || Faculty at The Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering
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While models are a great way to design your spacecraft system, you must validate those results using empirical data sets. Laboratory tests are the best way to validate your models to be confident in your simulations.

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5 Operation and maintenance

Operating and maintaining spacecraft systems to protect them from space weather and radiation is an important task of spacecraft systems engineering. This includes monitoring and controlling the status and performance of the systems using telemetry and commands, detecting and diagnosing any anomalies or faults with sensors and algorithms, implementing corrective or preventive actions with procedures and software, and evaluating and reporting the performance after the mission. All of these steps involve measuring and analyzing parameters, signals, settings, code, dose, degradation, error rate, or failure rate.

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Paul A. Burke, PhD

Space Physicist at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory || Faculty at The Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering
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Once launched, spacecraft systems must rely on proper and careful operation. Monitoring the systems and implementing corrective measures are the best way to prevent failure from space weather or radiation effects.

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6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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How do you protect your spacecraft from space weather and radiation?

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2

3

4

5

6

1 Space weather

2 Space radiation

3 Spacecraft systems engineering

4 Design and testing

5 Operation and maintenance

6 Here’s what else to consider

Aerospace Engineering

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How do you protect your spacecraft from space weather and radiation?

1

2

3

4

5

6

1 Space weather

2 Space radiation

3 Spacecraft systems engineering

4 Design and testing

5 Operation and maintenance

6 Here’s what else to consider

Aerospace Engineering

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