Attainable Artificial Gravity And Space Radiation Protection Solutions For Interplanetary Spaceships

Spacecraft habitats designed for long duration human spaceflight currently lack feasible designs to protect the crew from the harmful effects of micro-gravity and space radiation. Prolonged exposure to micro-gravity can lead to various health issues while space radiation exposure varies from long-term illness to acute radiation poisoning with possible fatal doses. This thesis explores these issues in order to derive a design solution for a spacecraft habitat capable of protecting the crew from both micro-gravity effects and space radiation exposure. Radiation simulations were performed to gather data on the stopping power of spacecraft hulls when exposed to galactic cosmic radiation and solar particle events. The hulls were augmented with various materials of varying thicknesses to ascertain how effective and feasible it would be to construct a spacecraft out of traditional construction methods, while adding a radiation protection layer. An analysis into artificial gravity habitat topology was conducted to determine feasibility in design sizes and geometries. A torus shape was determined to be the optimal topology. An emphasis was placed on the concepts of operations of the spacecraft habitat construction as well as the interior structural assembly. The spacecraft habitat utilizes a combination of hard-shell modules and curved inflatable modules to form an idealized geometry suitable for spacecraft rotation, for the purposes of generating artificial gravity. The interior of the spacecraft was outfitted with sub-systems, equipment and furniture to visualize the habitat in a way that communicates the potential of the design.Mechanical Engineering, Department o