Space Radiation Effects

Space is a hostile environment for electronic equipment. Apart from the extreme temperatures and vacuum, one of the main challenges is the cosmic radiation. Radiation-hardened (often referred to as "rad-hard") circuits, processors, and FPGAs are designed to resist the effects of radiation, ensuring the long-term operation of space missions such as Chandrayaan-3, NASA's space missions, and others. ✔️ Why is Radiation Hardening Essential? 1. Hostile Radiation Environment: Unlike the Earth's protective atmosphere, space is rife with high-energy particles like protons, electrons, and cosmic rays. When these particles interact with spacecraft electronics, they can cause glitches, malfunctions, or total system failure. 2. The High Stakes of Space Missions: Operations like Chandrayaan-3 or NASA's Mars Rovers have mission-critical components. A radiation-induced malfunction at a critical moment, such as landing or data transmission, could spell the end of the mission. 3. Economic Considerations: The sheer cost of space missions makes reliability paramount. Investment in radiation-hardening can save vast sums by preventing mission failures. ✔️ Failure Example Due to Radiation Perhaps the most famous example is the loss of the Mars Observer in 1993. It's believed that a single event upset (SEU) caused by space radiation might have led to a software glitch, causing the spacecraft to lose contact with Earth. ✔️ Design Solutions for Radiation Hardening: 1. Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) Technology: In SOI, a thin silicon layer is placed on an insulating layer. This reduces the susceptibility to radiation-induced charge. 2. Triple Modular Redundancy (TMR): By triplicating each circuit, any radiation-induced fault in one can be 'voted out' by the other two, ensuring system functionality. 3. Guard Rings & Error-Correcting Codes (ECC): Guard rings help prevent charge buildup, while ECCs in memory systems help detect and rectify radiation-induced errors. 4. Radiation Hardened Memories: - DICE (Dual Interlocked Cell): DICE is a radiation-hardening technique specifically designed for memories. It utilizes interlocking latches to minimize the probability of a single particle causing a memory state flip. - Hardened Latches and Flip-Flops ✔️ Who's Leading in Radiation-Hardened Tech? 1. Honeywell: A stalwart in the aerospace domain, Honeywell crafts a spectrum of rad-hard components for spaceborne applications. 2. BAE Systems: Their RAD series processors are known for their reliability in space missions. 3. Xilinx: A frontrunner in FPGA technology, Xilinx's rad-hard and rad-tolerant FPGAs are prized in high-reliability space missions. 4. Microchip Technology Inc.: From microcontrollers to memory devices, Microchip is a trusted name for rad-hard components in space. 5. Space Agencies like ISRO - Indian Space Research Organization and NASA design rad-hard components. #Chandrayaan3 #vlsi #semiconductor #radiationhardened

Cosmic rays don’t care how “smart” your chip is. They just flip bits. We’ve all seen the hype around AI-in-space, LEO/GEO satellites with onboard machine learning, autonomous navigation, even in-orbit decision-making. But here’s the cold reality: none of that matters if your silicon forgets what a “1” is mid-computation. At 500–36,000 km above Earth, high-energy protons and heavy ions will punch through your transistors. → Single Event Upsets (SEUs) → Latchup & burnout events → Cumulative displacement damage that slowly kills your device Your fancy 3nm chip? Useless if its gate oxides and interconnects aren’t built for the environment. Radiation-hardening isn’t just “slap on some shielding.” It’s materials science at the transistor level: – Silicon-on-insulator (SOI) to reduce charge collection volume – Wide bandgap semiconductors (SiC, GaN) for higher tolerance – Doping & geometry tweaks to harden sensitive nodes – Error-correcting codes & triple-modular redundancy in logic And here’s the kicker: AI accelerators in space aren’t just vulnerable, they’re target-rich for cosmic noise because of their massive parallelism. One flipped bit in a convolution layer can cascade into mission-killing errors. We can’t “software our way out” of this. If you’re designing space-grade AI hardware, your real bottleneck is radiation-tolerant materials, not your neural net architecture. Space doesn’t care about your compute benchmarks. It cares whether your chip still works after a solar storm. #MaterialsScience #RadiationHardening #SpaceTech #AIHardware #LEO #GEO

Cool data showing how flexible solar arrays degrade more quickly in #space than rigid arrays (following from last week's post on solar flare degradation of solar arrays). #Radiation wise, the main downside with the flexible array is limited shielding on the back face so more rapid degradation. In these early examples the degradation of the flexible array was more rapid than predicted, likely due to inadequate accounting for the effect of low energy protons incident on the back of the array. “The cells were mounted on two panels, one a rigid aluminum honeycomb structure giving essentially infinite back-shielding, and the other a thin Kapton-fiberglass substrate offering minimal protection to the rear surfaces of the cells [...] The cells on the flexible panel degrade much more rapidly than predicted, while the rigid panel cells follow the predictions fairly well. Possible causes for the excessive cell degradation on the flexible panels include: deposition of a contaminant on the cell coverglasses, low energy protons entering the edges of the cells or inadequate accounting for the effect of low energy protons incident on the back of the cells through the Kapton-fiberglass substrate” Once again from the INCREDIBLE 1982 edition of the JPL Solar Cell Radiation Handbook.

I lost my LinkedIn groove for the past few weeks…. 🚀 Exciting news in the realm of space life sciences! I'm thrilled to announce our latest publication, "A Second Space Age Spanning Omics, Platforms, and Medicine Across Orbits," now featured within the Nature portfolio's Space Omics Medical Atlas package (https://lnkd.in/eHCNFdBb). 🌌 This groundbreaking work, under Christopher Mason’s leadership and a stellar team of scientists, highlights the transformative era we're entering, where advanced molecular biology and precision medicine converge to enhance astronaut health and safety during space missions. The key findings include: 1. Precision Aerospace Medicine: For the first time, we're leveraging multi-omic tools, single-cell analysis, and spatial biology to understand human and microbial responses to spaceflight. This includes the development of personalized risk profiles and countermeasures for astronauts. 2. Space Radiation Effects: The study reveals distinct responses to galactic cosmic radiation (GCR), highlighting persistent epigenetic and transcriptomic changes that could last months after space missions. These insights are crucial for developing effective countermeasures against space-induced health risks. 3. Mitochondrial and Immune Dysregulation: The research uncovers mitochondrial dysfunction and immune dysregulation as central themes, with implications for insulin, estrogen signaling, and overall health risks, particularly for female astronauts. 4. Host-Microbiome Interactions: We also explored the systemic effects of spaceflight on host-microbiome interactions, noting significant microbial adaptations to the space environment, which could inform future countermeasures for maintaining astronaut health. This publication is a significant step forward in our quest to ensure the safety and well-being of humans as we venture deeper into space. I am proud to be part of this remarkable collaboration that brings us closer to a sustainable human presence beyond Earth. 🔗 Read more in Nature: https://lnkd.in/evZ6AH_a #SpaceLifeSciences #Omics #PrecisionMedicine #AstronautHealth #SpaceExploration #NaturePortfolio #SpaceAge NASA GeneLab NASA Ames Research Center Blue Marble Space Institute of Science University of Colorado Boulder #spaceresearchwithinreach

Hazards in space exploration include increased cancer risk, radiation sickness, damage to the central nervous system, and potential degenerative diseases for astronauts, due to exposure to Galactic Cosmic Rays and Solar Energetic Particles (SEPs) outside Earth's protective magnetosphere. These particles, including highly energetic heavy ions from GCRs and protons from SEPs, can penetrate the body, damage DNA, and traverse cell nuclei, leading to various health effects. Mitigating these risks requires advanced shielding, accurate space weather predictions, medical countermeasures, and comprehensive research into radiobiology. NASA

SPACE NEWS: Radiation levels published of Artemis I uncrewed mission to the Moon from December 2022. OVERVIEW: As we go further into space, astronauts will go on longer-duration missions, and will be exposed to space radiation for extended periods; it is therefore crucial to understand the radiation environment and the effect this has on our astronauts To this end, some interesting research was published in scientific journal Nature earlier this week by European Space Agency - ESA, German Aerospace Center (DLR) & NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration summarising the initial findings of radiation sensors rigged up to their 2 mannequins within the Orion space craft (Helga & Zohar). RADIATION LEVELS MEASURED IN THE ORION CAPSULE The measurement results showed that 🚀 radiation exposure inside the Orion spacecraft varied significantly depending on detector location, 🚀 the most shielded areas provided 4 times more protection than the least shielded, validating the spacecraft shielding design. 🚀 Radiation exposure from large solar particle events in the more heavily shielded area of the capsule remained below 150 millisieverts, a safe level for avoiding acute radiation sickness. 🚀 The spacecraft’s orientation also affected radiation exposure; a 90-degree turn during Orion’s flyby of the inner Van Allen belt reduced radiation exposure by 50%, providing valuable information for future mission designs. The scientific team concluded that radiation exposure on future Artemis missions is unlikely to exceed NASA limits for astronauts, confirming Orion’s suitability for crewed missions. WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT: Once you leave the cradle of Earth, you are exposed to harsh radiation from the Sun and other cosmic radiation. The human body is not designed to withstand these radiation levels and long-term exposure can lead to many health risks. Astronauts on board the International Space Station (ISS) are somewhat protected from this radiation by Earth geomagnetic field. So the more we understand the direction and intensity of this off-Earth radiation, the better chance we have of protecting our envoys of humankind. Sergi Vaquer Araujo, Lead for the Space Medicine Team said “This knowledge is invaluable, as it will allow us to accurately estimate radiation exposure for ... astronauts before they journey into deep space, ensuring their safety on missions to the Moon and beyond.” WHY DO I CARE? I began reporting on Artemis in March 2022, I attended the first 2 launch attempts (pics below) & am now following Artemis II to keep you all informed of humanity's return to the Moon. WHAT NEXT The international team continues to analyse data, comparing the radiation exposure between the mannequins 🚀 Helga, who flew unprotected, & 🚀 Zohar, who wore a protective vest. Congrats research teams for this fascinating & essential work. FURTHER READING: https://lnkd.in/eWUy9h9Y #spaceinsociety #artemis #stemcommunicator