The charged particle spectrum in Earth-Mars transit and Martian orbit has been observed by the MA... more The charged particle spectrum in Earth-Mars transit and Martian orbit has been observed by the MARIE charged particle spectrometer aboard
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) w... more The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) was established in 1998 for the explicit purpose of being an independent source of revolutionary aeronautical and space concepts that could dramatically impact how NASA develops and conducts its mission. The institute is to provide a highly visible, recognized and high-level entry point for outside thinkers and researchers. The purpose of the NIAC is to provide an independent, open forum for the external analysis and definition of space and aeronautics advanced concepts to complement the advanced concepts activities conducted within the NASA Enterprises. The NIAC has advanced concepts as its sole focus. It addresses revolutionary concepts-specifically systems and architectures-that can have a major impact on missions of the NASA Enterprises in the time frame of 10 to 40 years in the future. It generates ideas for how the current NASA Agenda can be done better; it expands our vision of future possibilities. This paper describes NIAC, the projects undertaken to date, and opportunities for the future. Imagine A magnetized plasma bubble is riding the solar wind, delivering payloads to the outer planets in months instead of years. Swarms of thousands of thumbnail sized "mesocopters" are measuring the outgasing of an awakening volcano on Titan. A long-duration, nuclear ramjet-powered unmanned aircraft is navigating the winds of Jupiter. A colony of robotic swimmers are exploring remote oceanic vents under the Europan ice. Meanwhile, in the inner planets, cycling Astro-tels transfer passengers to Mars and back. Many of them had prepared for the journey at a self-sustaining colony at the lunar south pole. Their supplies had been delivered to the Moon slingshot style , by Earth-orbiting rotating tethers. New equipment they will be using at Mars is cruising along a separate trajectory, tossed by a similar network of tethers. Back on Earth, teams of astronomers are looking at recent data on planets circling nearby stars taken from advanced high-resolution telescopes observing in the visible and xray spectra. They are working with collaborators who hope to send the first probes toward these planets. Down the hall, colleagues in the Earth Sciences are putting together a decadelong climate forecast after assimilating data collected in part from a global network of highaltitude, long duration balloons. This vision is derived from a sampling of the many studies in aerospace and aeronautics underway or completed through the auspices of the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC).
Extensive EVAs, high orbital inclination, and high solar activity mean astronauts on the Internat... more Extensive EVAs, high orbital inclination, and high solar activity mean astronauts on the International Space Station will be subjected to a greater radiation risk than NASA has experienced during the Shuttle era. Solar storms known as Solar Particle Events are one source of enhanced ...
Solar particle events (SPEs) pose a health risk to astronauts on deep space missions and in high-... more Solar particle events (SPEs) pose a health risk to astronauts on deep space missions and in high-inclination, low Earth orbit (LEO), as with the International Space Station. Risk mitigation strategies to minimize this threat will require a combination of in situ radiation monitoring ...
One of the three science instruments aboard the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft is the Martian Radia... more One of the three science instruments aboard the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft is the Martian Radiation Environment Experiment, MARIE. MARIE consists of a stack of silicon detectors, augmented by a Cerenkov detector. MARIE is designed to measure a portion of the particle spectrum of the Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCR), as well as the high fluxes of low-energy protons (energies less than about 100 MeV) that are intermittently produced by active regions on the sun in Solar Particle Events (SPE). MARIE is providing the first detailed information about the radiation environment near Mars.measurements. MARIE has been operating successfully for nearly a year. Solar particle events of considerable interest have been observed, and data have been obtained that will yield GCR spectra from a novel observation point in the solar system.
The charged particle spectrum for nuclei from protons to neon, (charge Z=10) has been observed du... more The charged particle spectrum for nuclei from protons to neon, (charge Z=10) has been observed during the cruise phase and in orbit around Mars by the MARIE charge particle spectrometer aboard the Odyssey spacecraft. The cruise data was taken between April 23, 2001 and August 11, 2001. The Mars orbit data was taken from March 5, 2002 through December 2002. Both the cruise data set and the orbital data set are compared with the simultaneous observations made by the CRIS instrument aboard the ACE space-craft, located at L1. Any detectable differences between the two spacecraft data sets could lead to the understanding of the radial dependence of solar modulation.
The Martian Radiation Environment Experiment (MARIE), aboard the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft, is... more The Martian Radiation Environment Experiment (MARIE), aboard the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft, is returning the first detailed radiation data from Mars orbit. Characterization of the Martian radiation environment is a necessary precursor to eventual human exploration of Mars. MARIE, which consists primarily of an 8-element silicon detector telescope, is providing high-quality measurements of Solar Energetic Particles (SEP) from a unique vantage point, and is also able to measure a significant portion of the spectrum of Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCR). The GCR are composed of atomic nuclei with kinetic energies ranging from tens of MeV per nucleon to hundreds of GeV per nucleon and higher. Energy distributions typically peak in the region of several hundred MeV per nucleon. These highly charged and energetic particles can penetrate tens of centimeters of matter, including tissue and practical depths of spacecraft shielding. The combination of high energy and high ionization associated wit...
Ionizing radiation in space presents a potentially serious health hazard to astronauts on long-du... more Ionizing radiation in space presents a potentially serious health hazard to astronauts on long-duration missions. Missions that take humans outside the geomagnetosphere (which provides significant shielding for crews in low-Earth orbit) are of particular concern. A mission to Mars would expose a crew to a substantial radiation dose from high-energy heavy ions in the Galactic Cosmic Radiation (GCR). Though not expected to cause acute effects, such exposures might endanger the long-term health of crewmembers, leading to increased risk of late effects such as cancer and cataract. Since the biological effects of these ions are not well understood, NASA cannot yet specify career limits for deep-space missions. While ground-based research in radiobiology continues, it is necessary to characterize the radiation field on the Martian surface. This is determined by the radiation incident on the top of the Martian atmosphere, the transmission properties of the atmosphere, and the production of...
We present the current status of efforts to monitor the radiation environment at Mars using instr... more We present the current status of efforts to monitor the radiation environment at Mars using instruments aboard the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft. For most of 2002 and 2003, the MARIE instrument successfully recorded energetic charged particles from the nearly-constant Galactic Cosmic Radiation (GCR) and from intermittent Solar Particle Events (SPEs). In late October 2003, communication with MARIE was lost during an extremely intense SPE. Troubleshooting attempts continued without success through mid-December, at which time efforts were suspended in order to eliminate any possible risk to Odyssey during its period of operation as a relay for the Spirit and Opportunity rovers. In Spring 2004, efforts to revive MARIE will resume, with an uncertain outcome; if the instrument cannot be restored to operation, it is expected that the MARIE team will extend ongoing collaborations with Odyssey scientists from the GRS and HEND teams to make use of the capabilities of those instruments. Specifi...
The 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft Martian Radiation Environment Experiment (MARIE) is a solid-stat... more The 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft Martian Radiation Environment Experiment (MARIE) is a solid-state silicon telescope high-energy particle detector designed to measure galactic cosmic radiation (GCR) and solar particle events (SPEs) in the 20 500 MeV/nucleon energy ...
The instrument payload aboard the 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter includes several instruments that are... more The instrument payload aboard the 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter includes several instruments that are sensitive to energetic charged particles from the galactic cosmic rays (GCR) and solar particle events (SPE). The Martian Radiation Environment Experiment (MARIE) was a dedicated energetic charged particle spectrometer, but it ceased functioning during the large solar storm of October/November 2003. Data from two other Odyssey instruments are used here: the Gamma Ray Spectrometer and the scintillator component of the High Energy Neutron Detector. Though not primarily designed to measure energetic charged particles, both systems are sensitive to them, and several years of data are available from both. Using the MARIE data for calibration of the other systems, count rates can be normalized (with significant uncertainties) to absolute fluxes of both GCR and solar energetic particles (SEP). The data, which cover the time span from early 2002 through the end of 2007, clearly show the solar cycle-dependent modulation of the GCR starting in 2004. Many SPEs were recorded as well and are cataloged here. Threshold energies were relatively high, ranging from 16 MeV in the most sensitive channel to 42 MeV. These thresholds are not optimal for detailed studies of SEPs, but this is the range of interest for calculations of dose and dose equivalent, pertinent to human flight, and covering that range was the original motivation for MARIE. The data are available on request and are potentially of use for the Earth-Moon-Mars Radiation Environment Module collaboration and other heliospheric modeling projects.
The helium energy spectrum in Martian orbit has been observed by the MARIE charged particle spect... more The helium energy spectrum in Martian orbit has been observed by the MARIE charged particle spectrometer aboard the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft. The orbital data were taken from March 13, 2002 to October 28, 2003, at which time a very intense Solar Particle Event caused a loss of communication between the instrument and the spacecraft. The silicon detector stack in MARIE is optimized for the detection of protons and helium in the energy range below 100 MeV/n, which typically includes almost all of the flux during SPEs. This also makes MARIE an efficient detector for GCR helium in the energy range of 50-150 MeV/n. We will present the first fully normalized flux results from MARIE, using helium ions in this energy range.
We present the results of Monte Carlo simulations of the response of the MARIE instrument to cosm... more We present the results of Monte Carlo simulations of the response of the MARIE instrument to cosmic ray protons.
The Mars Human Precursor Science Steering Group was chartered by MEPAG in June 2004 to analyze th... more The Mars Human Precursor Science Steering Group was chartered by MEPAG in June 2004 to analyze the priorities for precursor investigations, measurements, and technology/infrastructure demonstrations that would have a significant effect on the cost and risk of the first human mission to Mars. Based on this analysis, the MHP SSG proposes the following revised phrasing for MEPAG's Goal IV, Objective A, and within it the investigations that follow (in priority order). The measurements needed to carry out these investigations are described in the subsequent sections of this white paper. All of the measurements listed below, which are listed in priority order by the degree of impact on risk reduction, would have value to planning the human exploration of Mars (and most particularly the first human mission to the martian surface, for which our lack of knowledge will be greatest). However, the authors of this report are not in a position to determine how much risk needs to be removed in order for the first human mission to be judged acceptably safe. Thus, we cannot a priori determine how many of these measurements need to be successfully completed (i.e. required) before the first human mission can fly. Obviously, a larger precursor program will reduce the risk more than a smaller precursor program. However, the decision on safety thresholds must be deferred to others. Recommended revision to MEPAG Objective IVA. Objective A. Obtain knowledge of Mars sufficient to design and implement a human mission with acceptable cost, risk and performance. career safety limits.
Extensive EVAs, high orbital inclination, and high solar activity mean astronauts on the Internat... more Extensive EVAs, high orbital inclination, and high solar activity mean astronauts on the International Space Station will be subjected to a greater radiation risk than NASA has experienced during the Shuttle era. Solar storms known as Solar Particle Events are one source of enhanced ...
The 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft Martian Radiation Environment Experiment (MARIE) is a solid-stat... more The 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft Martian Radiation Environment Experiment (MARIE) is a solid-state silicon telescope high-energy particle detector designed to measure galactic cosmic radiation (GCR) and solar particle events (SPEs) in the 20 500 MeV/nucleon energy ...
The helium energy spectrum in Martian orbit has been observed by the MARIE charged particle spect... more The helium energy spectrum in Martian orbit has been observed by the MARIE charged particle spectrometer aboard the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft. The orbital data were taken from March 13, 2002 to October 28, 2003, at which time a very intense Solar Particle Event caused a ...
The charged particle spectrum in Earth-Mars transit and Martian orbit has been observed by the MA... more The charged particle spectrum in Earth-Mars transit and Martian orbit has been observed by the MARIE charged particle spectrometer aboard
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) w... more The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) was established in 1998 for the explicit purpose of being an independent source of revolutionary aeronautical and space concepts that could dramatically impact how NASA develops and conducts its mission. The institute is to provide a highly visible, recognized and high-level entry point for outside thinkers and researchers. The purpose of the NIAC is to provide an independent, open forum for the external analysis and definition of space and aeronautics advanced concepts to complement the advanced concepts activities conducted within the NASA Enterprises. The NIAC has advanced concepts as its sole focus. It addresses revolutionary concepts-specifically systems and architectures-that can have a major impact on missions of the NASA Enterprises in the time frame of 10 to 40 years in the future. It generates ideas for how the current NASA Agenda can be done better; it expands our vision of future possibilities. This paper describes NIAC, the projects undertaken to date, and opportunities for the future. Imagine A magnetized plasma bubble is riding the solar wind, delivering payloads to the outer planets in months instead of years. Swarms of thousands of thumbnail sized "mesocopters" are measuring the outgasing of an awakening volcano on Titan. A long-duration, nuclear ramjet-powered unmanned aircraft is navigating the winds of Jupiter. A colony of robotic swimmers are exploring remote oceanic vents under the Europan ice. Meanwhile, in the inner planets, cycling Astro-tels transfer passengers to Mars and back. Many of them had prepared for the journey at a self-sustaining colony at the lunar south pole. Their supplies had been delivered to the Moon slingshot style , by Earth-orbiting rotating tethers. New equipment they will be using at Mars is cruising along a separate trajectory, tossed by a similar network of tethers. Back on Earth, teams of astronomers are looking at recent data on planets circling nearby stars taken from advanced high-resolution telescopes observing in the visible and xray spectra. They are working with collaborators who hope to send the first probes toward these planets. Down the hall, colleagues in the Earth Sciences are putting together a decadelong climate forecast after assimilating data collected in part from a global network of highaltitude, long duration balloons. This vision is derived from a sampling of the many studies in aerospace and aeronautics underway or completed through the auspices of the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC).
Extensive EVAs, high orbital inclination, and high solar activity mean astronauts on the Internat... more Extensive EVAs, high orbital inclination, and high solar activity mean astronauts on the International Space Station will be subjected to a greater radiation risk than NASA has experienced during the Shuttle era. Solar storms known as Solar Particle Events are one source of enhanced ...
Solar particle events (SPEs) pose a health risk to astronauts on deep space missions and in high-... more Solar particle events (SPEs) pose a health risk to astronauts on deep space missions and in high-inclination, low Earth orbit (LEO), as with the International Space Station. Risk mitigation strategies to minimize this threat will require a combination of in situ radiation monitoring ...
One of the three science instruments aboard the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft is the Martian Radia... more One of the three science instruments aboard the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft is the Martian Radiation Environment Experiment, MARIE. MARIE consists of a stack of silicon detectors, augmented by a Cerenkov detector. MARIE is designed to measure a portion of the particle spectrum of the Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCR), as well as the high fluxes of low-energy protons (energies less than about 100 MeV) that are intermittently produced by active regions on the sun in Solar Particle Events (SPE). MARIE is providing the first detailed information about the radiation environment near Mars.measurements. MARIE has been operating successfully for nearly a year. Solar particle events of considerable interest have been observed, and data have been obtained that will yield GCR spectra from a novel observation point in the solar system.
The charged particle spectrum for nuclei from protons to neon, (charge Z=10) has been observed du... more The charged particle spectrum for nuclei from protons to neon, (charge Z=10) has been observed during the cruise phase and in orbit around Mars by the MARIE charge particle spectrometer aboard the Odyssey spacecraft. The cruise data was taken between April 23, 2001 and August 11, 2001. The Mars orbit data was taken from March 5, 2002 through December 2002. Both the cruise data set and the orbital data set are compared with the simultaneous observations made by the CRIS instrument aboard the ACE space-craft, located at L1. Any detectable differences between the two spacecraft data sets could lead to the understanding of the radial dependence of solar modulation.
The Martian Radiation Environment Experiment (MARIE), aboard the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft, is... more The Martian Radiation Environment Experiment (MARIE), aboard the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft, is returning the first detailed radiation data from Mars orbit. Characterization of the Martian radiation environment is a necessary precursor to eventual human exploration of Mars. MARIE, which consists primarily of an 8-element silicon detector telescope, is providing high-quality measurements of Solar Energetic Particles (SEP) from a unique vantage point, and is also able to measure a significant portion of the spectrum of Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCR). The GCR are composed of atomic nuclei with kinetic energies ranging from tens of MeV per nucleon to hundreds of GeV per nucleon and higher. Energy distributions typically peak in the region of several hundred MeV per nucleon. These highly charged and energetic particles can penetrate tens of centimeters of matter, including tissue and practical depths of spacecraft shielding. The combination of high energy and high ionization associated wit...
Ionizing radiation in space presents a potentially serious health hazard to astronauts on long-du... more Ionizing radiation in space presents a potentially serious health hazard to astronauts on long-duration missions. Missions that take humans outside the geomagnetosphere (which provides significant shielding for crews in low-Earth orbit) are of particular concern. A mission to Mars would expose a crew to a substantial radiation dose from high-energy heavy ions in the Galactic Cosmic Radiation (GCR). Though not expected to cause acute effects, such exposures might endanger the long-term health of crewmembers, leading to increased risk of late effects such as cancer and cataract. Since the biological effects of these ions are not well understood, NASA cannot yet specify career limits for deep-space missions. While ground-based research in radiobiology continues, it is necessary to characterize the radiation field on the Martian surface. This is determined by the radiation incident on the top of the Martian atmosphere, the transmission properties of the atmosphere, and the production of...
We present the current status of efforts to monitor the radiation environment at Mars using instr... more We present the current status of efforts to monitor the radiation environment at Mars using instruments aboard the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft. For most of 2002 and 2003, the MARIE instrument successfully recorded energetic charged particles from the nearly-constant Galactic Cosmic Radiation (GCR) and from intermittent Solar Particle Events (SPEs). In late October 2003, communication with MARIE was lost during an extremely intense SPE. Troubleshooting attempts continued without success through mid-December, at which time efforts were suspended in order to eliminate any possible risk to Odyssey during its period of operation as a relay for the Spirit and Opportunity rovers. In Spring 2004, efforts to revive MARIE will resume, with an uncertain outcome; if the instrument cannot be restored to operation, it is expected that the MARIE team will extend ongoing collaborations with Odyssey scientists from the GRS and HEND teams to make use of the capabilities of those instruments. Specifi...
The 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft Martian Radiation Environment Experiment (MARIE) is a solid-stat... more The 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft Martian Radiation Environment Experiment (MARIE) is a solid-state silicon telescope high-energy particle detector designed to measure galactic cosmic radiation (GCR) and solar particle events (SPEs) in the 20 500 MeV/nucleon energy ...
The instrument payload aboard the 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter includes several instruments that are... more The instrument payload aboard the 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter includes several instruments that are sensitive to energetic charged particles from the galactic cosmic rays (GCR) and solar particle events (SPE). The Martian Radiation Environment Experiment (MARIE) was a dedicated energetic charged particle spectrometer, but it ceased functioning during the large solar storm of October/November 2003. Data from two other Odyssey instruments are used here: the Gamma Ray Spectrometer and the scintillator component of the High Energy Neutron Detector. Though not primarily designed to measure energetic charged particles, both systems are sensitive to them, and several years of data are available from both. Using the MARIE data for calibration of the other systems, count rates can be normalized (with significant uncertainties) to absolute fluxes of both GCR and solar energetic particles (SEP). The data, which cover the time span from early 2002 through the end of 2007, clearly show the solar cycle-dependent modulation of the GCR starting in 2004. Many SPEs were recorded as well and are cataloged here. Threshold energies were relatively high, ranging from 16 MeV in the most sensitive channel to 42 MeV. These thresholds are not optimal for detailed studies of SEPs, but this is the range of interest for calculations of dose and dose equivalent, pertinent to human flight, and covering that range was the original motivation for MARIE. The data are available on request and are potentially of use for the Earth-Moon-Mars Radiation Environment Module collaboration and other heliospheric modeling projects.
The helium energy spectrum in Martian orbit has been observed by the MARIE charged particle spect... more The helium energy spectrum in Martian orbit has been observed by the MARIE charged particle spectrometer aboard the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft. The orbital data were taken from March 13, 2002 to October 28, 2003, at which time a very intense Solar Particle Event caused a loss of communication between the instrument and the spacecraft. The silicon detector stack in MARIE is optimized for the detection of protons and helium in the energy range below 100 MeV/n, which typically includes almost all of the flux during SPEs. This also makes MARIE an efficient detector for GCR helium in the energy range of 50-150 MeV/n. We will present the first fully normalized flux results from MARIE, using helium ions in this energy range.
We present the results of Monte Carlo simulations of the response of the MARIE instrument to cosm... more We present the results of Monte Carlo simulations of the response of the MARIE instrument to cosmic ray protons.
The Mars Human Precursor Science Steering Group was chartered by MEPAG in June 2004 to analyze th... more The Mars Human Precursor Science Steering Group was chartered by MEPAG in June 2004 to analyze the priorities for precursor investigations, measurements, and technology/infrastructure demonstrations that would have a significant effect on the cost and risk of the first human mission to Mars. Based on this analysis, the MHP SSG proposes the following revised phrasing for MEPAG's Goal IV, Objective A, and within it the investigations that follow (in priority order). The measurements needed to carry out these investigations are described in the subsequent sections of this white paper. All of the measurements listed below, which are listed in priority order by the degree of impact on risk reduction, would have value to planning the human exploration of Mars (and most particularly the first human mission to the martian surface, for which our lack of knowledge will be greatest). However, the authors of this report are not in a position to determine how much risk needs to be removed in order for the first human mission to be judged acceptably safe. Thus, we cannot a priori determine how many of these measurements need to be successfully completed (i.e. required) before the first human mission can fly. Obviously, a larger precursor program will reduce the risk more than a smaller precursor program. However, the decision on safety thresholds must be deferred to others. Recommended revision to MEPAG Objective IVA. Objective A. Obtain knowledge of Mars sufficient to design and implement a human mission with acceptable cost, risk and performance. career safety limits.
Extensive EVAs, high orbital inclination, and high solar activity mean astronauts on the Internat... more Extensive EVAs, high orbital inclination, and high solar activity mean astronauts on the International Space Station will be subjected to a greater radiation risk than NASA has experienced during the Shuttle era. Solar storms known as Solar Particle Events are one source of enhanced ...
The 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft Martian Radiation Environment Experiment (MARIE) is a solid-stat... more The 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft Martian Radiation Environment Experiment (MARIE) is a solid-state silicon telescope high-energy particle detector designed to measure galactic cosmic radiation (GCR) and solar particle events (SPEs) in the 20 500 MeV/nucleon energy ...
The helium energy spectrum in Martian orbit has been observed by the MARIE charged particle spect... more The helium energy spectrum in Martian orbit has been observed by the MARIE charged particle spectrometer aboard the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft. The orbital data were taken from March 13, 2002 to October 28, 2003, at which time a very intense Solar Particle Event caused a ...
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