Galactic cosmic ray environment predictions for the NASA BioSentinel Mission, part 2:Post-mission validation.

Area of Science:

• Space science and astrobiology
• Radiation physics and dosimetry

Background:

• The BioSentinel CubeSat mission provided continuous measurements of the space radiation environment during its deployment on Artemis-I.
• Pre-launch computational models predicted galactic cosmic ray (GCR) exposure within BioSentinel.

Purpose of the Study:

• To validate pre-launch computational models of space radiation exposure using in-flight data from the BioSentinel mission.
• To assess the accuracy of GCR models and their components in predicting dose rate and linear energy transfer (LET) spectra.

Main Methods:

• Utilized BioSentinel's on-board dosimeter measurements of dose rate and LET spectra.
• Employed computational models for GCR environment, radiation transport, and spacecraft geometry.
• Performed sensitivity tests on model parameters and validated GCR models using satellite data.

Main Results:

• Combined computational models showed excellent agreement with measured dose rates.
• Model calculations accurately predicted measurements below approximately 10 keV/µm LET.
• A consistent underprediction of measurements was observed at higher LET values.

Conclusions:

• The validated computational models provide reliable predictions for space radiation exposure, particularly for dose rates.
• Discrepancies at higher LET suggest potential contributions from detector response or low-energy anomalous cosmic rays.
• BioSentinel data successfully validated GCR models, enhancing future space radiation environment predictions.