The assessment of space radiation exposure of biology experiments during two short-term missions

The assessment of space radiation exposure on plants, animals, cell cultures, as well as the astronauts, is crucial not only because it is very different from that to which they are subjected on the earth, but also to understand the combined effects of exposure to space radiation under microgravity. In particular, we evaluated the equivalent dose due to neutrons and charged particles for biology experiments, in two short-term missions, FOTON M3 and STS-34 mission, using Thermo Luminescence Dosimeters (TLDs) to evaluate the charged particles dosimetry and a set of passive neutron bubbles detectors for neutron dosimetry. In STS-34 mission, stack bismuth track dosimeter was used in addition to bubbles detectors to evaluate the dose equivalent rate due to neutrons in a wide energy range (0.025 eV-200 GeV). Considering a total dose due to both radiation types particles, a value of about 1 mSv/day is obtained. The neutron component represents about 18 % of the total.