Dose Build-up of High-energy 1H and 4He Ions in Standard, Innovative and In Situ Shielding Materials for Space Radiation: Measurements and Simulations

Galactic cosmic rays (GCR) are among the biggest hindrances to crewed space exploration. The ions contributing the most to fluence and absorbed dose in free space are 1H and 4He. In addition, their contribution to dose equivalent increases behind thick shields. In this work, the results of depth-dose measurements performed with high-energy 1H and 4He ions (2 GeV and 480 MeV 1H, and 430 MeV/u 4He) in structural (aluminum alloy), standard (PMMA and high-density polyethylene), innovative (lithium hydride) and in situ (Moon regolith simulant) shielding materials are presented. A strong dose build-up effect, due to target fragments and secondary protons, is observed in the first part of the Bragg curve for all the tested ion beams. The experimental results are compared to the Monte Carlo simulation tools most used for radiation protection in space, i.e., different physics lists of Geant4, PHITS, and FLUKA.