TY - JOUR
T1 - Mars’ surface radiation environment measured with the Mars Science Laboratory’s Curiosity Rover
AU - Hassler, Donald M.
AU - Zeitlin, Cary
AU - Wimmer-Schweingruber, Robert F.
AU - Ehresmann, Bent
AU - Rafkin, Scot
AU - Eigenbrode, Jennifer L.
AU - Brinza, David E.
AU - Weigle, Gerald
AU - Böttcher, Stephan
AU - Böhm, Eckart
AU - Burmeister, Soenke
AU - Guo, Jingnan
AU - Köhler, Jan
AU - Martin, Cesar
AU - Reitz, Guenther
AU - Cucinotta, Francis A.
AU - Kim, Myung-Hee
AU - Grinspoon, David
AU - Bullock, Mark A.
AU - Posner, Arik
AU - Gõmez-Elvira, Javier
AU - Vasavada, Ashwin
AU - Grotzinger, John P.
AU - MSL Science Team
AU - Martin-Torres, Javier
AU - Zorzano Mier, Maria-Paz
N1 - This paper is dedicated to Dr. Michael J. Wargo at NASA HQ, who passed away unexpectedly on 4 August 2013. Mike was Chief Exploration Scientist in the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate (HEOMD) and an enthusiastic supporter of collaborative projects between Science and Exploration. He was a strong supporter of RAD and a valuable member of both the science and exploration communities. He was a good friend and a wonderful human being, and he will be greatly missed. RAD is supported by NASA under Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) subcontract 1273039 to Southwest Research Institute and in Germany by Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) and DLR’s
Space Administration grant numbers 50QM0501 and 50 QM1201 to the Christian Albrechts University, Kiel. Part of this research was carried out at JPL, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with NASA. We extend sincere gratitude to J. Simmonds and J. Crisp at JPL; G. Allen, M. Meyer, C. Moore, V. Friedensen, and R. Williams at NASA HQ; and H. Witte at DLR in Germany for their unwavering support of RAD over the years. The authors also thank the reviewers for their careful and thoughtful comments and suggestions. The data used in this paper are archived in the NASA Planetary Data System’s Planetary Plasma Interactions (PPI) node at the University of California, Los Angeles. The archival volume includes the full binary raw data files, detailed descriptions of the structures therein, and higher-level data products in human-readable form. The PPI node is hosted at http://ppi.pds.nasa.gov.
PY - 2014/1/24
Y1 - 2014/1/24
N2 - The Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) on the Mars Science Laboratory’s Curiosity rover began making detailed measurements of the cosmic ray and energetic particle radiation environment on the surface of Mars on 7 August 2012. We report and discuss measurements of the absorbed dose and dose equivalent from galactic cosmic rays and solar energetic particles on the martian surface for ~300 days of observations during the current solar maximum. These measurements provide insight into the radiation hazards associated with a human mission to the surface of Mars and provide an anchor point with which to model the subsurface radiation environment, with implications for microbial survival times of any possible extant or past life, as well as for the preservation of potential organic biosignatures of the ancient martian environment.
AB - The Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) on the Mars Science Laboratory’s Curiosity rover began making detailed measurements of the cosmic ray and energetic particle radiation environment on the surface of Mars on 7 August 2012. We report and discuss measurements of the absorbed dose and dose equivalent from galactic cosmic rays and solar energetic particles on the martian surface for ~300 days of observations during the current solar maximum. These measurements provide insight into the radiation hazards associated with a human mission to the surface of Mars and provide an anchor point with which to model the subsurface radiation environment, with implications for microbial survival times of any possible extant or past life, as well as for the preservation of potential organic biosignatures of the ancient martian environment.
UR - http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcAuth=ORCID&SrcApp=OrcidOrg&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=WOS_CPL&KeyUT=WOS:000330039300005&KeyUID=WOS:000330039300005
U2 - 10.1126/science.1244797
DO - 10.1126/science.1244797
M3 - Article
VL - 343
JO - Science
JF - Science
SN - 0036-8075
IS - 6169
M1 - 1244797
ER -