Jingnan Guo

Measurements of Energetic Particle Radiation in Transit to Mars on the Mars Science Laboratory

Going to Mars The Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft containing the Curiosity rover, was launched from Earth in November 2011 and arrived at Gale crater on Mars in August 2012. Zeitlin et al. (p. 1080) report measurements of the energetic particle radiation environment inside the spacecraft during its cruise to Mars, confirming the hazard likely to be posed by this radiation to astronauts on a future potential trip to Mars. Williams et al. (p. 1068, see the Perspective by Jerolmack) report the detection of sedimentary conglomerates (pebbles mixed with sand and turned to rock) at Gale crater. The rounding of the rocks suggests abrasion of the pebbles as they were transported by flowing water several kilometers or more from their source. The radiation dose on a round-trip to Mars could represent a large fraction of the accepted lifetime limit for astronauts. The Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft, containing the Curiosity rover, was launched to Mars on 26 November 2011, and for most of the 253-day, 560-million-kilometer cruise to Mars, the Radiation Assessment Detector made detailed measurements of the energetic particle radiation environment inside the spacecraft. These data provide insights into the radiation hazards that would be associated with a human mission to Mars. We report measurements of the radiation dose, dose equivalent, and linear energy transfer spectra. The dose equivalent for even the shortest round-trip with current propulsion systems and comparable shielding is found to be 0.66 ± 0.12 sievert.

Mars’ Surface Radiation Environment Measured with the Mars Science Laboratory’s Curiosity Rover

The Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) on the Mars Science Laboratory’s Curiosity rover began making detailed measurements of the cosmic ray and energetic particle radiation environment on the surface of Mars on 7 August 2012. We report and discuss measurements of the absorbed dose and dose equivalent from galactic cosmic rays and solar energetic particles on the martian surface for ~300 days of observations during the current solar maximum. These measurements provide insight into the radiation hazards associated with a human mission to the surface of Mars and provide an anchor point with which to model the subsurface radiation environment, with implications for microbial survival times of any possible extant or past life, as well as for the preservation of potential organic biosignatures of the ancient martian environment.

Charged particle spectra obtained with the Mars Science Laboratory Radiation Assessment Detector (MSL/RAD) on the surface of Mars

The Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD)—situated inside the Mars Science Laboratorys Curiosity rover—is the first ever instrument to measure the energetic particle radiation environment on the surface of Mars. To fully understand the influence of this surface radiation field in terms of potential hazard to life, a detailed knowledge of its composition is necessary. Charged particles are a major component of this environment, both galactic cosmic rays propagating to the Martian surface and secondary particles created by interactions of these cosmic rays with the atoms of the Martian atmosphere and soil. Here we present particle fluxes for a wide range of ion species, providing detailed energy spectra in the low-energy range (up to several hundred MeV/nucleon particle energy), and integral fluxes for higher energies. In addition to being crucial for the understanding of the hazards of this radiation to possible future manned missions to Mars, the data reported here provide valuable input for evaluating and validating particle transport models currently used to estimate the radiation environment on Mars and elsewhere in space. It is now possible for the first time to compare model results for expected surface particle fluxes with actual ground-based measurements.

Measurements of the neutron spectrum on the Martian surface with MSL/RAD

The Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD), onboard the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover Curiosity, measures the energetic charged and neutral particles and the radiation dose rate on the surface of Mars. An important factor for determining the biological impact of the Martian surface radiation is the specific contribution of neutrons, with their deeper penetration depth and ensuing high biological effectiveness. This is very difficult to measure quantitatively, resulting in considerable uncertainties in the total radiation dose. In contrast to charged particles, neutral particles (neutrons and gamma rays) are generally only measured indirectly. Measured spectra are a complex convolution of the incident particle spectrum with the detector response function and must be unfolded. We apply an inversion method (based on a maximum likelihood estimation) to calculate the neutron and gamma spectra from the RAD neutral particle measurements. Here we show the first spectra on the surface of Mars and compare them to theoretical predictions. The measured neutron spectrum (ranging from 8 to 740 MeV) translates into a radiation dose rate of 14±4μGy/d and a dose equivalent rate of 61±15μSv/d. This corresponds to 7% of the measured total surface dose rate and 10% of the biologically relevant surface dose equivalent rate on Mars. Measuring the Martian neutron and gamma spectra is an essential step for determining the mutagenic influences to past or present life at or beneath the Martian surface as well as the radiation hazard for future human exploration, including the shielding design of a potential habitat.

Diurnal variations of energetic particle radiation at the surface of Mars as observed by the Mars Science Laboratory Radiation Assessment Detector

The Radiation Assessment Detector onboard the Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity is detecting the energetic particle radiation at the surface of Mars. Data collected over the first 350 Martian days of the nominal surface mission show a pronounced diurnal cycle in both the total dose rate and the neutral particle count rate. The diurnal variations detected by the Radiation Assessment Detector were neither anticipated nor previously considered in the literature. These cyclic variations in dose rate and count rate are shown to be the result of changes in atmospheric column mass driven by the atmospheric thermal tide that is characterized through pressure measurements obtained by the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station, also onboard the rover. In addition to bulk changes in the radiation environment, changes in atmospheric shielding forced by the thermal tide are shown to disproportionately affect heavy ions compared to H and He nuclei.

PROPERTIES OF THE ACCELERATION REGIONS IN SEVERAL LOOP-STRUCTURED SOLAR FLARES

Using {\em RHESSI} hard X-ray imaging spectroscopy observations, we analyze electron flux maps for a number of extended coronal loop flares. For each event, we fit a collisional model with an extended acceleration region to the observed variation of loop length with electron energy

MODELING THE VARIATIONS OF DOSE RATE MEASURED BY RAD DURING THE FIRST MSL MARTIAN YEAR: 2012–2014

E

Determination of the acceleration region size in a loop-structured solar flare

, resulting in estimates of the plasma density in, and longitudinal extent of, the acceleration region. These quantities in turn allow inference of the number of particles within the acceleration region and hence the filling factor

Variations of dose rate observed by MSL/RAD in transit to Mars

f

Measurements of the neutron spectrum in transit to Mars on the Mars Science Laboratory

-- the ratio of the emitting volume to the volume that encompasses the emitting region(s). We obtain values of