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International Space Station (ISS) => ISS Section => Topic started by: Space Pete on 09/29/2011 08:36 pm

Title: OIG Reviews NASA's Replacement of Radiation Monitoring Equipment on ISS
Post by: Space Pete on 09/29/2011 08:36 pm

OIG Reviews NASA's Replacement of Radiation Monitoring Equipment on ISS

See this PDF (703 kb): http://oig.nasa.gov/audits/reports/FY11/IG-11-027.pdf

Title: Re: OIG Reviews NASA's Replacement of Radiation Monitoring Equipment on ISS
Post by: robertross on 09/30/2011 02:13 am

"NASA has poorly managed the development..."

This is becoming a recurring theme  :(

Thanks for the link Pete. Didn't know about these issues.

Title: Re: OIG Reviews NASA's Replacement of Radiation Monitoring Equipment on ISS
Post by: Norm Hartnett on 09/30/2011 08:37 pm

By all that is unholy, NASA purports to be interested in "Exploration" and yet here we find that they are failing to do any neutron monitoring whatsoever let alone having a comprehensive radiation environmental monitoring and research program on the ISS. Yet radiation exposure is, no doubt, the biggest threat to any human exploration efforts.

This is especially troubling since this field is one that NASA has abrogated to itself, prohibiting any related National Lab projects. I worked in the radiation health physics field some 25 year ago and, even with the relatively primitive instruments available then we were able to quantify neutron flux to some degree and establish environmental health monitoring in a wide range of environments with a broad range of radiation sources. This is truly appalling.