In the past 15 years, an area of research and development focused on the study of the radiation environment in space and its effects was created and consolidated at LIP. The work developed is in line with the ESA roadmap for the area of "Space Radiation environment and Effects", with all the competences developed in this field at LIP encompassing all the technologie identified by ESA. LIP is therefore a national academic and R&D reference in these areas, which are:

1. Environment analysis & Modelling: development and improvement of radiation belt models; development of radiation environment models for specific locations in the solar system; study and description of radiation environments due to solar emissions and galactic cosmic radiation.

2. Radiation Effects Analysis tools: development of tools enabling precise and user friendly radiation shielding and effects calculations, including the induction of single event effects (SEE) in the electronic components that support the systems of satellites and space missions.  


3. Radiation measurement: development of ionising radiation measurement technologies and methods.

4. Radiation Hardness Assurance: investigation of the effects of radiation on new types of electronic components and in mission and satellite dependent environments, both for total ionizing dose (TID) and for single effect effects (SEE); development of test facilities with particle beams and radiation sources; development and exploration of in-flight experiments and tests and of methodologies for radiation hardeness assurance (RHA) and evaluation of radiation effects in biological systems and for human space flight.

In its activities, mostly developed under contracts with ESA, LIP has worked with different national and international entities, both from academia and industry.

Group webpage at LIP

Group Leader:  

Patrícia Gonçalves

patricia@lip.pt