A Neutron Irradiation Facility for Space Applications
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
A neutron irradiation facility for space applications Experiment Units for Space Life Science Workshop 8th June 2015 Roma ASI Valfredo Zolesi Kayser Italia S.r.l. Via di Popogna 501 57128 – Livorno (Italy) www.kayser.it [email protected] Introduction Electronic components and systems and Living organisms in Space are subject to the effect of Cosmic radiation Electromagnetic fields Weigthlessness June 2015 KI-MARK-HO-259 1/0 2 Electronic components Electronic components are systems or physical entities which affect electrons or their associated field. Among other: passive, active, diodes, transistors, memories,…. Cosmic radiations have a deep impact . The improvements of the technology allow today for a decrease of gates physical dimensions, and as a consequence a low power and high frequency, but on the other side increasing the probability of fault. June 2015 KI-MARK-HO-259 1/0 3 Cosmic Radiation effects and countermeasures There are typically three methods of reducing the vulnerability of electronics to radiation damage: Rad-Hard by Design (RHBD) Rad-Hard by Shielding (RHBS) Rad-Hard by Process (RHBP) The effect of particles hitting the component (SEU – Single Event Upset) can be a Bit Flip: o Mitigation is often via a Triple Voting technique or EDAC Another important effect is a Latchup, when a short circuit is generated by the particle: o Mitigation is via an accurate design of the Power Distribution Unit (PDU). Electromagnetic fields play also an important role, and are normally mitigated by appropriate filtering. EMC and EMI Testing, associated also to irradiation facilities, increases the confidence level for long term missions. Gravity has no effect on electronic components, apart hot-spot due to lack of convection. June 2015 KI-MARK-HO-259 1/0 4 BIOPAN (1/2) Example # 1 (SEU): A memory Module “RAMBO” in 1992 was the controller of BIOPAN Facility attached outside the FOTON capsule. An HW Watch-dog and a triple voting technique was implemented, and the memory was filled up with autocorrelation code FAF320. After the recovery, the entire memory was downloaded and 8 bit- flips where noted. The time tag was associated to the HK data, and the sub- satellite point was identified as the South Atlantic Anomaly. June 2015 KI-MARK-HO-259 1/0 5 BIOPAN (2/2) June 2015 KI-MARK-HO-259 1/0 6 MATROSHKA Example # 2: The Matroshka Facility was installed for one year outside the ISS Russian segment. A CAN Bus had to be implemented for the communication between the Facility (External) and the Russian (internal) computer. The requirement was for a RAD-Hard CAN-Bus (not existing) and therefore the issue was solved implementing the CAN Bus Core into a RAD-Hard FPGA. June 2015 KI-MARK-HO-259 1/0 7 ENAs – Energetic Neutral Atoms ENAs phenomenon: ENAs are produced from charge-exchange of energetic ions with the background neutral gas. They can be collected remotely providing a plasma remote sensing being not subject to magnetic field giromotion. Magnetospheric ENAs: Planet’s magnetic field dominates the magnetosphere and traps charged particles, which may be accelerated up to very high energies. Trapped charged particles gyrate about magnetic field lines, participate in drift motion and form radiation belts. Processes in the magnetospheric tail play an important role in the transport of energized plasma toward the Earth, in the auroral zone and in the so called "ring current“, during magnetospheric disturbances caused by Sun activity. The orbits of practically all earth-orbiting satellites pass through the magnetosphere and could be subjected to effects - (failure in the transmissions, Single Event Upsets (SEU), Single Event Latch-ups (SEL), degradation of solar cells) - due to this energetic plasma. June 2015 KI-MARK-HO-259 1/0 8 ENAMISS (fm.: Mitchell et al., ENA imaging: Yosemite 2002 imaging of space plasmas in fluxes of Magnetospheric energetic neutral atoms (ENAs). Imaging Workshop ) An innovation in the Space Weather field: Development of an Energetic Neutral Atoms - ENA sensor, namely ENAMISS, to be uploaded on the International Space Station for continuous monitoring of the inner magnetosphere at low and medium latitudes, where geosyncronous satellites and many other scientific and commercial satellites are orbiting. Finally, an alerting service could be provided to different kind of users (mainly the scientific community and the commercial satellite operators). June 2015 KI-MARK-HO-259 1/0 9 Living organisms in space Life is a process where a group of elements are organized in order to reach specific objectives (decrease of entropy). Among other: Bacteria Plants Yeasts Animals Mammalians Humans June 2015 KI-MARK-HO-259 1/0 10 Reasons for life science experiments in space Life science experiments in space are conducted in order to study: the changes induced on biologic material as we know on Earth when they are exposed to space conditions (esobiology) the possibility of life (and precursors) developing and transported from space to Earth (astrobiology). Therefore we are looking to the possibility of surviving in hostile environment and countermeasures to be adopted ( calcium loss, plant growth, genetic modifications…) Today we know that cosmic radiation, electromagnetic fields, temperature, pressure, and gravity level deeply affect the organic life. June 2015 KI-MARK-HO-259 1/0 11 Reasons for life science experiments in space Life science experiments are conducted in bioreactors (EU – experiment unit), which can be automatic or manually operated by the crew, and inserted into a container (EC- Experiment container) which is placed into an incubator controlling the pressure and temperature. A centrifuge provides the 1 G level for a number of EC. On ground, the same experimental protocol is executed in parallel on a control group. Therefore, after the re-entry, we have three set of sample which have been exposed to different conditions: In flight units, subject to cosmic rays and 0 G. In flight, subject to cosmic rays and 1 G. On ground, subject to 1 G. It is therefore possible to correlate the effect of cosmic rays and gravity. June 2015 KI-MARK-HO-259 1/0 12 Future perspectives The insertion of dosimeters into the EC, could allow ground testing with irradiation facilities, adding another important experimental factor for comparison. R3D-B2 instrument was a LIULIN-type dosimeter situated inside the ESA Biopan- 5 platform to measure radiation dose and flux outside the Foton M2 capsule. June 2015 KI-MARK-HO-259 1/0 13 June 2015 June s s l l l l e s e l c l c e m c m s e l r 5 5 5 5 5 e l t t 1 1 1 1 1 e s e s 0 0 0 0 0 E c y c 2 2 2 2 2 l s n l l S s S A Dosimetry l a M l n n n n n a i i i i i l X a - s 2 e i l A D c e l l m E e a y y y y y c i s l l l l l l X N l f f f f f t n l e c L e O N I l L 1 s O O h t s I e c u - s o o o o o e U e e c KI l t t t t t A o T D T D S a l t H g t m A c K n L m d D H T d d d d d y C e e s a - e Y A E O I C N P r e r - e e e e e t n c c E a h M m S U s l s a n n n n n P I i B o - l S E C S N E S R R N T p l L n n n n n t c d e A i O R o MARK a a a a a o a a o l l l l l P r c r S o O L M t I Y P P P P P e R r c s m t T s y Y B C a u T I s e R H M u - h s s h T M S B O P O M T i M A T X n S v s i s T a S l e U s S - u u I a I e L l U n m d d K P o E s P e I E s u t a a u - r t L c R s n D S O H p g HO S o n i u P i a r l o i i O I R R i N l d t e S t d n r I a d C y R A A E n d - e a r h t s T S T T a A T X o X M i E h s - s i R n C i 259 1/0 259 s p e p A o r n o P d s o d i i i a S t b b - n s u E a s a l o T e r s r a n R o c A A m n A d y a v i o O I i t a I I i m 2 1 E d u l m - - b P - y o i B B P u r a o o i o .