Study on Radiation Shielding of Inner Radiation Belt Protons

The radiation environment in the inner radiation belt (IRB) is severe due to the large flux of high-energy protons. Very few satellites are deployed in IRB today, and radiation shielding in this region did not get much attention. An imaging satellite developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences will operate in the IRB in 2023. In order to shield the high-energy protons, a new composite material was developed, and the shielding ability of this material was compared with that of Al, Ta, and sandwich materials by the Geant4 simulation tool. The results show that the new material can reduce the total ionizing dose by 40% and the displacement damage dose by 50% compared with the Al shielding in the same shielding mass. The number of transmitted protons under the shielding of Al and new materials was tested by using a 30–60-MeV proton beam on the ground, and the experimental results agree well with the simulation results.