CubeSat Concept for Demonstrating Efficient Directional Magnetic Radiation Protection for Spacecrafts Based on HTS Coils

High energy ionizing radiation can pose a significant risk to crew and payload of any space mission especially outside lower earth orbits. To investigate efficient radiation protection, in this paper we propose the design of a CubeSat spacecraft equipped with a high temperature superconductor (HTS) coil for radiation shielding. The HTS coil in the proposed design is positioned at a certain distance from the radiation protected volume. The coil is pointed towards the main source of charged particle showers, e.g., the Sun, to provide directional radiation protection due to magnetic deviation of charged particles. A suite of sensors is deployed in the wake of the charged particles to showcase the effectiveness of such a directional magnetic shielding concept. In this paper we introduce the complete design for such a demonstration project including the HTS coil powered by a superconducting power supply (flux-pump) and the cryogenic system design with cryocooler and thermal shielding. We further present simulation results on the magnetic shielding effect of the HTS-coil together with a preliminary coil parameter optimization process to increase the shielding effectiveness. The coil for this demonstration is made of non-insulated pancakes of 4 mm wide HTS tape. We further discuss the overall thermal budget and cooling as well as the electrical power budget for the CubeSat system.