A method for predicting the long term behavior of semiconductor devices in the low dose-rate ionizing-radiation space environment is presented. The operating conditions related to this environment are briefly reviewed. The new method consists of three major steps. The first step is the determination of the trap characteristics using the experimental recording of an isochronal annealing curve. The second step is the prediction of the isothermal annealing behavior deduced from the experimentally deduced trap characteristics. This approach makes it possible to avoid time-consuming isothermal measurements. As trapping and detrapping processes are independent, combining both processes by convolution, the last step, allows prediction of low dose-rate effects. Up to now, this accelerated characterization method has not been applied to electronic devices. An experimental application of the model to predict the long term behavior of a typical metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor is given and the results, as well as the validity and the limitations of the model, are discussed. ©1997 American Institute of Physics.