Radiation Risk Assessment and Management for Space Tourism and Very High Altitude Aviation

Air travel has become a regular occurrence for many of the world’s population. For the vast majority of airline passengers they are not aware of the low level of radiation exposure when they fly, even less that sudden increases to radiation dose rates can occur due to space weather.

To manage these risks authorities such as ICAO are gradually bringing in new warning and alert service requirements for commercial aviation. However, with the current proposals for high altitude (e.g. Zero2Infity and World View Ent. Balloon Flights) and space tourism (e.g. Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin) there is the  potential for the aircraft/spacecraft crews and passengers to be exposed to greatly elevated radiation doses, especially during rapid changes in space weather. It is widely acknowledged that exposure to high levels of radiation can result in detrimental health effects to humans.

The aim of the proposed research is to model/assess the radiological dose uptake to crew/passengers from very high altitude flights and space tourism trips, specifically the deterministic and stochastic affects.

The research shall ultimately summarise the predicted dose rates and uptake to crew/passengers during different flight profiles/space weather scenarios and assess the level of risk and its acceptability. Ultimately ensuring that all risks as a result of these scenarios are ‘As Low As Reasonably Practicable’ (ALARP).

The results of this research would be of benefit to emerging space markets, such as, space tourism and sub orbital flights, where numerous commercial entities are currently proposing such operations. This poster presents the initial findings from research of the space tourism industry and possible radiation exposure levels, reviews new/developing regulations and summarises the of views of astronauts/tourists/companies/authorities to date.