Portable X ray machines in Manned Spacecrafts.

[Prashantakerkar]

x ray machine - Google Search

Will Portable X Ray machines work in Manned Spacecrafts?

Thanks & Regards,
Prashant S Akerkar

 

[dick_freebird]

Presuming that you have the power source it
needs (not to be assumed; spacecraft tend to
be DC power bus) the electronics should be
largely unaffected - until you get a heavy ion
track through the high voltage power supply,
which might let the smoke out (making you
many new friends in that closed can).

X-ray vacuum tube does not care. Control
electronics could be extremely radiation
sensitive, or less so, but unlikely to be immune
especially if built using cheapo commercial
ICs. If there is a destructive single event
phenomenon then time-to-fail is a purely
statistical thing, with "space weather" defined
by orbital height, inclination, solar activity
"rolling the dice on your behalf".

 

[Prashantakerkar]

Thank you.

Do you feel is it feasible to install and check the functions working of the portable X Ray machines in the International Space Station (ISS) for testing?

In case no, How testing can be performed?

Thanks & Regards,
Prashant S Akerkar

 

[Aussie Susan]

How much money do you have?
What is the underlying question that you are trying to answer that makes you think this is the approach to take?
Susan

 

[dick_freebird]

Feasible is one thing. You could probably bring
the X-ray machine and the inverter to power it.
At $10K/kg launch cost (maybe lower, maybe not,
depends on how you haggle with your ride) and
what looks like 50kg (weight by eyeball) that's a
$500K ticket that could better be spent on a
terrestrial test campaign. The space station "test"
would be anecdotal and lack quantitative numbers
for received ion fluence (at a beam line you would
get a fluence @ atomic weight @ energy to report).

On the other side, it's difficult to get at the guts of
packaged semiconductors with the ion energies
that you can get out of an accelerator, usually you
have to remove encapsulation from one part of
interest - box-scale single event testing is just
not doable. So you'd have to manage to test (or
obtain existing data) on every active device, and
stitch those low level responses together according
to what you know about the board and box level
design to make an argument about failure or not.

 

[Aussie Susan]

We know XRays work in a vacuum. Given that they travel through deep space I think we can assume they work in zero-gravity as well.
If you are wanting to radiation test the electronics, see your local research oprganisation and I'm sure they will have a suitable radiation source.
If you want to Xray the Astronauts then you will have all sorts of other issues. If you want to Xray other items then (given exposures are typically fairly short) you might find cheaper alternatives (the 'vomit comet' type approach used by NASA) if you need zero gravity (which is what I see as the main advantage of doing experiments in a spacecraft).
If you want to vibration-test the device (as it will experience during liftoff etc.) then there are other places that I'm sure will provide the appropriate vibration tables for way less cost.
Susan

 

[Prashantakerkar]

Thank you Susan.

As you mentioned, there could be issues with Astronauts (Human Beings) if X Rays are taken on Spacecrafts say International Space Station (ISS).

What according to you could be the medical issues?.

Can X Rays harm the Astronauts?

Should i discuss this with eminent radiologists?

We know XRays work in a vacuum. Given that they travel through deep space I think we can assume they work in zero-gravity as well.
If you are wanting to radiation test the electronics, see your local research oprganisation and I'm sure they will have a suitable radiation source.
If you want to Xray the Astronauts then you will have all sorts of other issues. If you want to Xray other items then (given exposures are typically fairly short) you might find cheaper alternatives (the 'vomit comet' type approach used by NASA) if you need zero gravity (which is what I see as the main advantage of doing experiments in a spacecraft).
If you want to vibration-test the device (as it will experience during liftoff etc.) then there are other places that I'm sure will provide the appropriate vibration tables for way less cost.
Susan

Thanks & Regards,
Prashant S Akerkar

 

[KlausST]

Hi,

Can X Rays harm the Astronauts?

if I´m not mistaken .. in space there is a lot of X-ray anyways.

Klaus

 

[Aussie Susan]

Hi,

if I´m not mistaken .. in space there is a lot of X-ray anyways.

Klaus

Which is why space ships take a lot of trouble to insulate the wals from them. IIRC places like the ISS have water tanks in the wals to help absorb the x-rays - certainly that has been discussed for the space craft design for any manned Mars mission.
However we are talking here about generating x-rays INSIDE the space craft.
Really, this is all fairly meaningless unless the OP tells us the problem that (s)he thinks putting an x-ray machine into a space craft will solve. I'm guessing that this is an XY problem.
Susan