The ionizing radiation environment on the moon Original Research Article

The ionizing radiation environment on the moon that contributes to the radiation hazard for astronauts consists of galactic cosmic rays, solar energetic particles and albedo particles (mainly neutrons), from the lunar surface. We present calculations of the effective dose rate due to lunar albedo neutrons. These calculations are based on GEANT4 Monte Carlo simulations of albedo neutron production on the moon. We compare our results with the Lunar Prospector (LP) fast neutron data. We also compare the effective dose rate from lunar albedo neutrons to that from galactic cosmic rays and solar energetic particles.