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It strikes me that, outside of the Jovian system for the most part, the orientation of ionizing radiation exposure is entirely sunward. Thus, if you park a large enough shield between the sun and a spacecraft, the exposure is minimal. But all the shielding strategies I've studied don't seem to be addressing this model, hence the question.

If this is not the case, what is the shape of the envelope of exposure, and why is it that shape?

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    $\begingroup$ You should specify what kind of radiation you are thinking off. IR, visible light, UV, X-rays, alpha rays, beta rays, gamma rays, neutron rays, cosmic rays? $\endgroup$
    – Uwe
    Jun 9, 2019 at 21:51
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    $\begingroup$ But within the Van Allen belts the captured radiation is changing their direction. Moving charged particles are influenced by magnetic fields. Cosmic radiation is " mainly originating outside the Solar System and even from distant galaxies." $\endgroup$
    – Uwe
    Jun 9, 2019 at 22:23
  • $\begingroup$ @Uwe, yeah, this is exactly the kind of stuff I'm wondering about. Uhoh's edit is exactly right - I'm concerned about radiation with health impacts for human beings. $\endgroup$ Jun 10, 2019 at 16:01

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