Investigation of radiation doses in open space using TLD detectors

The low energy component of the cosmic radiation field is strongly modified by the shielding of the spacecraft and it is time and location dependent. Thermoluminescent lithium fluoride detectors have been applied to determine the radiation doses inside the ESA-Facility BIOPAN. The BIOPAN facility was mounted outside and launched on a Felon spacecraft and opened to space to allow exposure of several experiments to open space. Standard TLD-600, TLD-700 chips, two layers MTS-Ns sintered pellets with different effective thickness of the sensitive layer and MTS-N of different thickness have been exposed with different shielding thicknesses in front of them. The Measured TL signal in the 0.1 mm thick detector just shielded by an aluminised Kapton foil of 25 mum thickness in front yielded a dose of 29.8 Gy (calibrated with Cs-137 gaming rays) for an exposure time of 12.7 days: after 2.5 g.cm(-2) shielding the doses dropped to 3 mGy. The monitoring of radiation doses and its depth dose distribution outside the spacecraft are of great interest for radiation protection of astronauts working in open space. The knowledge of depth-dose distribution is a prerequisite to determine the organ doses an astronaut will receive during an extravehicular activity (EVA). The BIOPAN experiments are to be continued in the future.