GROUP E

DOSIMETRY AND EFFECTS ON HUMANS

Large solar particle events (SPE) pose one of the two major radiation hazards present during human interplanetary space flight. SPE, principally composed of protons with energy <100 MeV, possess significantly higher fluxes, but a lower proton energy spectrum, than does the omnipresent galactic cosmic ray (GCR) environment. The large fluxes of SPE protons are much more likely to lead to early, deterministic effects in space crews than is exposure to GCR. The quantity and composition of shielding to protect crew from SPE and the dosimetric instrumentation needed to accurately assess SPE dose and dose equivalent, both inside and outside the spacecraft, are likely to be different from that needed for GCR. This group will discuss the specific hazards to space crews, both in terms of deterministic and stochastic effects, posed by SPE, strategies for shielding space crews from SPE, especially from the point of view of the ALARA principle, and will address the requirements of dosimetric detectors and instrumentation needed to accurately monitor and assess crew exposure to SPE.