Radiation environments such as galactic cosmic rays, solar cosmic rays and radiation belts produce various space radiation effects on the components and astronauts, threaten the normal operation of spacecraft and life and health of astronauts. Material shielding is currently one of the most effective radiation protection measures and plays an important role in ensuring the smooth progress of aerospace missions. The research progress of space radiation shielding materials in different scenarios for three typical objects: components, astronauts, and aircraft platform protection is reviewed in this paper. Also the development direction of space radiation shielding materials such as metal composite materials and polymer materials is explored.

Space radiation has been well-known as the main health hazard to crews involved in manned space explorations. Two kinds of hydrogenous-rich composites are developed through compressing molding under high-temperature processing techniques for shielding space radiation. Beams of 80~400 MeV/n ¹²C of the Heavy Ion Research Facility in Lanzhou are used to test the shielding properties of the new composites. Experimental results show that the composite with more hydrogen content has higher shielding ability for 80 and 400 MeV/n ¹²C particles. Meanwhile, the addition of boron has no obvious effect on improving the shielding performance of the composite. Monte Carlo radiation transport codes were used to assess the shielding performance of composite in real space radiation. The simulation results show that hydrogenous-rich composite has significant advantage in space radiation shielding compared with traditional aluminum.