Nomenclature

Radiation in the space environment is a major concern of spacecraft engineers. Photoemission by radiation is experimented with using a Cobalt 60 radiation source, potassium as the emitting material and a charged copper collection plate inside of a vacuum chamber. This experiment produced no significant results but suggestions are made for future attempts. Mitigating the amount of radiation that a spacecraft’s payload is exposed to is another challenge. Different materials are tested for shielding effectiveness at varying thicknesses. Of the four materials tested, aluminum, lead, cardboard and Mylar, the lead and aluminum provided the best shielding