Measurements, modelling and data analysis for the monitoring and characterization of the space radiation in support to human flight towards the Moon and Mars.

Deep-space manned missions present significant technical challenges, with space radiation being one of the most critical limiting factors for mission planning. Space radiation can damage spacecraft systems and pose severe health risks to astronauts, making the development of effective countermeasures crucial to ensure the safety of both crew and systems. A key step in developing such countermeasures involves the centralized management of radiation-related data, making it accessible to the global scientific community. To support this initiative, the European Radiation Facility Network Data Hub (ERFNet- Data Hub) has been commissioned by ESA (with strong support from ASI) and is currently under development at ALTEC (Turin, Italy). To establish the necessary foundational knowledge for ERFNet development, dosimetric simulations have been conducted to identify the most efficient simulation strategies. In this context, the daily radiation dose delivered during the ARTEMIS I mission has been estimated. In parallel, ground-based research on nuclear fragmentation cross-sections to improve space radiation protection strategies has been carried out by actively contributing to the FOOT experiment of INFN, in particular collaborating with the Turin group responsible of the Calorimeter. Multiple calibration campaigns have enabled the identification of an energy calibration function and the development of an equalization strategy. Preliminary mass reconstruction results, used to test the calibration’s performance, are also presented in this work.