Radiation Protection Effectiveness of a Proposed Magnetic Shielding Concept for Manned Mars Missions

The effectiveness of a proposed concept for shielding a manned Mars vehicle using a confined magnetic field configuration is evaluated by computing estimated crew radiation exposures resulting from galactic cosmic rays and a large solar flare event. In the study the incident radiation spectra are transported through the spacecraft structure/magnetic shield using the deterministic space radiation transport computer codes developed at Langley Research Center. The calculated exposures unequivocally demonstrate that magnetic shielding could provide an effective barrier against solar flare protons but is virtually transparent to the more energetic galactic cosmic rays. It is then demonstrated that through proper selection of materials and shield configuration, adequate and reliable bulk material shielding can be provided for the same total mass as needed to generate and support the more risky magnetic field configuration.