How did gold tin foil and thin walls protect astronauts from solar radiation in the lunar module?
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Solar radiation is all radiation from the sun. This includes visible, IR, and UV light. So the reflective material is there to reflect away sunlight and keep the lunar lander from overhearing.
There is sunshades that you can put over the windshield of your car that have a reflective aluminum layer that works the same way, reflecting sunlight away.
For particle radiation from the sun, it is mostly electrons and protons and that will the aluminum walls stop. A solar flair with a huge amount of particle radiation from the sun could have killed the astornauts.
The four forms of radiation you need to watch out for are Alpha particles, Beta particles, Gamma waves, and Neutron particles. Gold foil is enough to stop Alpha and Beta radiation but beyond that the trip was kept short enough that the crew wouldn’t suffer a dangerous dose.
Its about stopping what you can and dealing with what you can’t.
When it comes to space craft mass is a HUGE concern. Certain types of radiation can only be stopped by a large amount of mass. It’s not practical to make a spacecraft with lead walls 5 ft thick. So they picked materials that gave them the most bang for the buck. A lot of radiation can be shielded with a small amount of the correct material. After that its up to measuring what the astronauts were exposed to and giving them treatment.
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