Shielding against cosmic radiation on interplanetary missions

Radiation is one of the crucial factors that need to be addressed when considering long-duration space missions.The ESA international and interdisciplinary Topical Team was established in 2002, and worked to provide an overview of current knowledge on the radiation environment, with special emphasis on radiation directionality, provide an up-to-date overview of knowledge on passive shielding and the biological effects of radiation, and investigate aspects of active shielding by magnetic fields generated by superconducting magnets. From this work, recommendations on further research and technical activities were derived; they are summarised here.These recommendations range from specific, detailed analysis of existing data, to ground-based accelerator studies and the development of space prototypes.