Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

12-2008

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Nuclear Engineering

Major Professor

Lawrence W. Townsend

Abstract

In order to be able to pave the way for future lunar manned missions, proper studies for the radiation environment of the Moon and its impact on humans are necessary. For this reason, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft is scheduled to be launched in April 2009. It will carry several instruments with various objectives, one of which is the Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiations (CRaTER) detector, which will characterize the lunar radiation environment and its impacts on human tissue by measuring the radiation Linear Energy Transfer (LET) in A-150 Tissue Equivalent Plastic. To properly support CRaTER's mission, advance knowledge of the detector's response to the lunar radiation environment is necessary. The goal of this dissertation is to characterize CRaTER's response to ground based calibrations, Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCRs), and Solar Particle Events (SPEs) by building a Linear Energy Transfer (LET) database using three-dimensional Monte Carlo methods. This is the first database suitable for supporting CRaTER's mission, by comparing what will be measured in space with Monte Carlo codes based models.

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