title: Mechanistic bases for modelling space radiation risk and planning radiation protection of astronauts.
abstract: The approaches generally adopted for planning radiation protection in ground-based facilities cannot be applied straightforward for astronaut protection in space. Indeed in such extreme conditions, modelling methods and shielding design must be based on a detailed mechanistic knowledge of the peculiar astronauts irradiation conditions. Great help can derive from mechanistic modelling, generally aimed to better understand the intermediate steps leading from the initial energy depositions to different biological endpoints, up to organ and organism level. In the present work, criteria will be illustrated for using mechanistic approaches in developing practical tools for astronauts radioprotection, once the external field and the interaction cross sections with the spacecraft walls are known; particular attention will be given to the treatment of mixed fields. Techniques for integrating into condensed-history codes stochastic information provided by event-by-event simulations will be presented.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita degli Studi di Milano and INFN--Sezione di Milano, Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ottolenghi
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ballarini
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Biaggi
mesh_terms: D000337:Aerospace Medicine; D018480:Astronauts; D002869:Chromosome Aberrations; D003359:Cosmic Radiation; D004249:DNA Damage; D004307:Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D011835:Radiation Protection; D018570:Risk Assessment; D019445:Solar Activity; D013026:Space Flight / Q000295:instrumentation*; D014867:Water; D014893:Weightlessness
chemical_list: D014867:Water