Groups | Search | Server Info | Keyboard shortcuts | Login | Register [http] [https] [nntp] [nntps]

Groups > sci.physics > #588186 > unrolled thread

Juno radiation

Back to article view | Back to sci.physics

Contents

  Juno radiation Snowshoe <no@spam.please> - 2016-07-06 16:12 -0400
    Re: Juno radiation Sergio <invalid@invalid.com> - 2016-07-06 15:44 -0500
    Re: Juno radiation Fabian Russell <fb@zen.info> - 2016-07-06 22:54 +0000
    Re: Juno radiation Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2016-07-09 21:30 +0200

#588186 — Juno radiation

Silly question:

Is there any sort of real-world equivalent/example of what the radiation 
that one would experience if one were hanging out with the Juno explorer?

Something like "one chest X-Ray per second, non-stop" or "getting a 
cancer radiation treatment dose hourly" or "having a pound of plutonium 
in your pants pocket next to your balls" "taking a bath in Fukushima 
cooling water" or something equally silly.

[toc] | [next] | [standalone]

#588190

On 7/6/2016 3:12 PM, Snowshoe wrote:
> Silly question:
>
> Is there any sort of real-world equivalent/example of what the radiation
> that one would experience if one were hanging out with the Juno explorer?
>
> Something like "one chest X-Ray per second, non-stop" or "getting a
> cancer radiation treatment dose hourly" or "having a pound of plutonium
> in your pants pocket next to your balls" "taking a bath in Fukushima
> cooling water" or something equally silly.


This kind of radiation hardening makes the spacecraft able to survive a 
radiation dose of 50,000 rems. But that's still a far cry from the 20 
million rems that Juno will be exposed to over its lifetime. To make it 
even hardier, they needed to build a special box.

Most of Juno's electronics are secreted away inside a cube that measures 
about 3 feet on each side. The “vault” is made built from 
half-inch-thick titanium that will stop or slow down those fast-moving 
charged particles before they can smash into Juno's delicate parts.

Of course, Juno's solar panels and cameras won't do much good if they're 
locked inside a dark box. Those and other sensors are left outside the 
vault, with cables connecting them to the circuitry inside the vault.

Those external parts have added protections. For example, the camera 
that looks at the stars to help the spacecraft orient itself is wrapped 
in an inch-thick canister, with just one end open.

The solar panel arrays have a 12-millimeter-thick sheet of glass over 
the top. The glass lets in light so the solar panels can do their jobs, 
but it also provides a small amount of protection against radiation and 
damaging dust particles.

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#588207

On Wed, 06 Jul 2016 16:12:37 -0400, Snowshoe wrote:

> Silly question:
> 
> Is there any sort of real-world equivalent/example 
>

No.  The question is not silly.

It is a question of QUANTITATIVE physics as opposed
to QUALITATIVE physics.

Because I have no experience in the quantitative aspects
of solar and cosmic radiation I cannot answer it directly.
(I suppose that only NASA scientists could and I doubt that
many of them hang out at sci.physics.)

But both the solar wind and cosmic radiation are composed
mainly of protons, and consequently there would be no earthly
equivalent source (aside from standing within the beam of
a proton accelerator).

Protons are equivalent to ionized hydrogen gas, and thus
both the solar wind and cosmic radiation would be equivalent
to being barraged by a very high speed gas, although the
gas would be of very low density.

Protons in an earthly particle accelerator have relativistic
velocities, but the protons in the solar wind do not.

 

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#588512

Snowshoe wrote:

> Silly question:

Yes, indeed.

> Is there any sort of real-world equivalent/example of what the radiation
> that one would experience if one were hanging out with the Juno explorer?

Probably yes.

-- 
PointedEars

Twitter: @PointedEars2
Please do not cc me. / Bitte keine Kopien per E-Mail.

[toc] | [prev] | [standalone]

Back to top | Article view | sci.physics

csiph-web