JPL has over twenty missions concurrently in development at any one time, each with its own requirements based on the mission objectives and environment at the target destination. The radiation environment drives many of these requirements and may vary from a very low dose level, barely able to affect any mission (such as a high altitude or low earth orbit mission), to the harshest radiation environments able to end a mission in a matter of days (such as the radiation belts around Jupiter, which is 10000 times worse than low earth orbit).

For the mission requirements to be met, the spacecraft and its payload must be able to endure its respective environment. The radiation environment causes many deleterious effects on a spacecraft, any of which may prematurely end a mission. These effects can manifest in gradual degradation of an object, such as the darkening of a lens or a reduction in power from a solar cell, or these effects can manifest as a sudden interruption or failure in functionality, such as an electrical discharge event or processor malfunction that halts or damages a spacecraft.

The Radiation Effects Group maintains in-house facilities and partnerships with outside entities that support total ionizing dose testing with radioactive isotopes, single event effects testing with picosecond laser and single event effects testing at heavy ion accelerator facilities around the world. The Group also manages the operation of the Dynamitron, providing 3 MeV electrons for characterization studies of the impact of internal charging in electronics and materials in a space environment.