A STUDY OF IMPROVEMENT OF A TECHNOLOGY FOR OBTAINING RADIATION-PROTECTING MATERIALS FOR SPACECRAFT AND ROCKETRY SYSTEMS
Authors: Божко С.А. , Санін А.Ф. , Беліков В.В. , Хуторний В.В. 
Published: February 2024

Abstract. The use of commercial integrated circuits (ICs) in the electronic equipment of the spacecraft entails a certain risk. This is due to the fact that some commercial ICs are not suitable for operating conditions in space, most have a functional failure rate of about 10 krad per total accumulated dose (ie quite low), durability is not controlled from lot to lot, and reliability in extreme operating conditions is not defined. The object of development and research were the processes of interaction of materials with corpuscular radiation in a wide range of energies, and the subject of research was the shielding of electron and proton flows with energies up to 100 MeV by disperse -filled composite materials with a polymer matrix. A promising way to increase the survivability of the spacecraft by reducing the accumulated radiation dose is the use of protective materials that effectively protect the BEA from the radiation flow. The analysis of the current state of protection of radio- electronic equipment of space technology made it possible to establish that the most effective protection can be achieved by optimally combining the content of light and heavy elements in the composite material (CM). Modern research is aimed at obtaining composite materials that have the ability to weaken and disperse both light and heavy elementary particles. In the State University named after O. Honchar developed fundamentally new composite materials, which are superior in protection efficiency to those used today - metal ones, and are not inferior to the best world analogues. Preliminary results of theoretical and experimental research, including the use of computer modeling and simulation experiments on electron and proton accelerators, made it possible to draw conclusions about the possibility of increasing the complex of protective properties and prospects of the materials being created. The flow of high-energy electrons decreases by 1.4 times, and protons by 1.6 times compared to aluminum alloys. Enterprises of the space industry of Ukraine have shown great interest in the use of new protective materials. Analysis of the available information shows that the created materials are superior in operational parameters to those used today in China, Russia, Ukraine and other space countries. According to theoretical calculations, CM samples were developed, which have a higher stopping power of electrons than aluminum or its alloys, which are currently used in space vehicles in almost the entire range of the spectrum characteristic of GSO. Studies using the ELIAS linear electron accelerator showed that the obtained KM samples are more than 1.3 times more effective in terms of protective properties compared to aluminum at electron energies of the order of 2-3 MeV . There are prerequisites for obtaining an even more effective attenuation of the electron flow in comparison with the "reference" aluminum due to the variation of both the qualitative composition of the CM and its structure.