Organ/Tissue absorbed doses measured with a human phantom torso in the 9th Shuttle-Mir Mission (STS-91)

Organ/Tissue absorbed doses were measured with a life-size human phantom torso in the 9th Shuttle/Mir Mission (STS-91) from June 2 to 12, 1998. This is the first attempt to measure directly organ/tissue doses over a whole human body in space. The absorbed dose was measured by combination of two integrating detectors: thermo- luminescent dosemeter of Mg2SiO4: Tb (TDMS) and plastic nuclear track detector (PNTD). Both detectors were calibrated on ground using high-energy charged-particle beams. The detectors were packed in 59 cases of tissue-equivalent resin; and put into the positions of radiologically important organs and tissues in the phantom. Efficiency reductions of TDMS for high-LET particles were corrected based on the LET-differential particle fluence of space radiation measured with PNTDs. The accumulated absorbed doses during this 9.8-days mission at low-earth orbit (400 km x 51.6 degrees) ranged from 1.6 mGy at colon to 2.6 mGy at bone surface (shoulder) with a variation factor of 1.6. The absorbed doses at some internal organs were higher than the skin dose. This fact is important from the viewpoint of radiological protection for astronauts.