Abstract
The real-time measurement of radiation environment was made with an improved real-time radiation monitoring device (RRMD)-II onboard Space Shuttle STS-79 (S/MM#4: 4th Shuttle MIR Mission, at an inclination angle of 51.6° and an altitude of 250–400 km) for 199 h during 17–25 September, 1996. The observation of the detector covered the linear energy transfer (LET) range of 3.5–6000 keV/µm. The Shuttle orbital profile in this mission was equivalent to that of the currently planned Space Station, and provided an opportunity to investigate variations in count rate and dose equivalent rate depending on altitude, longitude, and latitude in detail. Particle count rate and dose equivalent rate were mapped geographically during the mission. Based on the map of count rate, an analysis was made by dividing whole region into three regions: South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) region, high latitude region and other regions. The averaged absorbed dose rate during the mission was 39.3 µGy/day for a LET range of 3.5–6000 keV/µm. The corresponding average dose equivalent rates during the mission are estimated to be 293 µSv/day with quality factors from International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP)-Pub. 60 and 270 µSv/day with quality factors from ICRP-Pub. 26. The effective quality factors for ICRP-Pub. 60 and 26 are 7.45 and 6.88, respectively. From the present data for particles of LET > 3.5 keV/µm, we conclude that the average dose equivalent rate is dominated by the contribution of galactic cosmic ray (GCR) particles. The dose-detector depth dependence was also investigated.
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