Thanks FF, yeah I am an engineer, although of the rocks and soil...

Thanks FF, yeah I am an engineer, although of the rocks and soil variety.

The other way they radiation harden these chips is to run 3 or 4 of them in parallel. So if one gets knocked out, the remaining 3 continue on doing the calculations in parallel, until the knocked out one can reset and pick up where the others are at. If the damage is permanent you have 3 chips still available.

On the ISS they have a radiation hardened module for the Astronauts - if cosmic radiation elevates they can go sit in that until it passes. When it comes to Astronauts, they are more worried about gamma radiation (ionizing radiation) as it can pass through things easily. We're protected on Earth from it by the magnetic field that extends out from the poles.