Spacecraft Hormesis?

[L_K_II_Les_Aldrich@RL.GOV]

A clip from a NASANews article today:



"Galileo has operated in orbit more than three times longer 

than its originally planned mission. The resilient spacecraft 

has survived about three and a half times as much exposure to 

radiation from Jupiter's radiation belts as it was designed to 

withstand."



Question:  Was Galileo overdesigned because of an overly conservative

estimate of the effect of radiation on its components (e.g., someone applied

the LNT theory), or is this simply a demonstration that radiation hormesis

applies even to spacecraft in outer space?



Les Aldrich, CHP

l_k_ii_les_aldrich@rl.gov





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