September 23, 2024
International team publishes Artemis I radiation measurements
An international team that includes Amir A. Bahadori, associate professor of nuclear engineering, and Diego Laramore, engineering doctoral graduate, recently published space radiation measurements conducted during the Artemis I mission.
The article, which was published in the journal Nature, presents data from the European Space Agency's Active Dosimeter, the German Aerospace Center's M-42, NASA's Crew Active Dosimeter, and NASA's Hybrid Electronic Radiation Assessor, or HERA.
Measurements were conducted throughout the Artemis I mission, demonstrating the strong influence of spacecraft shielding on inner Van Allen belt doses and the weak effect of shielding on galactic cosmic rays in space. Comparisons between measurements and simulated doses serve as validation of the modeling tools used by NASA and other space agencies. Additionally, the Artemis I measurements show that estimated astronaut doses on the Orion spacecraft outside of Earth's protective geomagnetic field could be as much as 30% lower than previously estimated, indicating that a crewed mission to Mars might be achievable within existing astronaut dose limits.
Bahadori led the HERA science team at NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, or JSC, from 2013 to 2015, where he helped design and calibrate the instrument. He has since maintained collaborations with NASA as a professor at K-State. Laramore, whose doctoral studies were co-supervised by Walter McNeil, associate professor of nuclear engineering, and Bahadori, joined the Space Radiation Analysis Group at NASA JSC in 2020 and quickly established himself as a key contributor on the HERA project as a radiation subject matter expert.
"It was incredible to see spaceflight hardware that I helped develop fly on Artemis I, but it is even more rewarding to know that Diego played an integral role in getting HERA ready for flight and conducting post-mission data analyses," Bahadori said. "Diego has gone above and beyond in representing himself, our nuclear engineering program and K-State by doing great things at NASA."
Artemis I was the first mission of NASA's Artemis Program, which aims to return humans to the Moon before 2030. The 25-day mission took the uncrewed Orion spacecraft into lunar orbit to test critical spacecraft systems in preparation for crewed Artemis missions.