The effects of cosmic particle radiation on pocket mice aboard Apollo XVII: VII. Cosmic ray particle dosimetry and trajectory tracing

Five pocket mice (Perognathus longimembris) were flown on Apollo XVII, each with a solid-state (plastic) nuclear track detector implanted beneath its scalp. The subscalp detectors were sensitive to HZE cosmic ray particles with a LET larger than or equal to 0.15 million electron volts per micrometer...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAviation, space, and environmental medicine Vol. 46; no. 4 Sec 2; p. 537
Main Authors Cruty, M R, Benton, E V, Turnbill, C E, Philpott, D E
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 01.04.1975
Subjects
Animals
Cosmic Radiation
Radiation Effects
Radiation Monitoring - instrumentation
Radiation Monitoring - methods
Scalp
Space Flight
United States
United States
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Summary:Five pocket mice (Perognathus longimembris) were flown on Apollo XVII, each with a solid-state (plastic) nuclear track detector implanted beneath its scalp. The subscalp detectors were sensitive to HZE cosmic ray particles with a LET larger than or equal to 0.15 million electron volts per micrometer (MeV/mjm). A critical aspect of the dosimetry of the experiment involved tracing individual particle trajectories through each mouse head from particle tracks registered in the individual subscalp detectors, thereby establishing a one-to-one correspondence between a trajectory location in the tissue and the presence or absence of a lesion. The other major aspect was the identification of each registered particle. An average of 16 particles with Z larger than or equal to 6 and 2.2 particles with Z larger than or equal to 20 were found per detector. The track density, 29 tracks/cm2, when adjusted for detection volume, was in agreement with the photographic emulsion data from an area dosimeter located next to the flight package.
ISSN:0095-6562