Utilization of trash for radiation protection during manned space missions

High-energy charged particles in space pose a severe threat to the health and safety of astronauts. This is especially the case in deep space exploration owing to the absence of magnetic field protection as present in low Earth orbit (LEO) manned spaceflight. This has necessitated the investigation and development of effective space radiation protection materials and methods. Manned space missions produce a significant amount of trash, which can be compressed by a heat melt compactor (HMC) to reduce space utilization. The trash would also be sterilized during the compaction process and the extracted water can be recycled. The processed trash can potentially be used for space radiation protection, with the benefit of reduced launch load. In this study, the Monte Carlo method was used to acquire information about the primary and secondary radiation particles that emerged from different radiation shields made from an HMC-processed model trash of a manned space mission, as well as those made from aluminum and water, which are common, and currently used space radiation protection materials. The types and energies of the considered incident radiation particles were based on space radiation environment spectra. A comparison of the space radiation protection capacities of the different shields revealed that HMC-processed trash was superior to aluminum and water. Processed trash thus promises to be a practicable alternative to water for the construction of radiation emergency areas for future deep space missions as the mission proceeds and the water is consumed.