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A vest designed to shield astronauts from deadly solar particles in deep space or on Mars is set for trials on a lunar mission, its Israeli developers say.
- The technology was also developed to protect rescue workers from radiation after nuclear disasters
- Test planned for NASA mission to the moon in 2018 that might carry astronauts
- The vest is tailor-made for each astronaut and protects humans from devastating solar radiation in deep space and on Mars
The AstroRad Radiation Shield was devised by Tel Aviv-based StemRad, which has already produced and marketed a belt to protect rescue workers from harmful gamma ray radiation emitted in nuclear disasters, such as Chernobyl and Fukushima.
The vest will protect vital human tissue, particularly stem cells, which could be devastated by solar radiation in deep space or on Mars, whose sparse atmosphere offers no protection, StemRad's CEO Oren Milstein said.
NASA has said it hoped to send astronauts to Mars in the mid-2030s, while entrepreneur Elon Musk's private company SpaceX has laid out ambitious plans to start sending unmanned missions every two years from 2020 and humans to the red planet by the mid 2020s.
The vest is made of layers that look like a contoured map and will be tailor-made for each astronaut.
Non-metallic protective materials will be positioned on each shield to cover their organs.
"This product will enable human deep space exploration," Mr Milstein said.
"Our breakthrough has come in creating the architecture of the multi-layered shield to accurately cover the most important organs."
StemRad said it had proven the concept in the laboratory and in simulations, but testing would also take place on the Orion spacecraft, a joint project of Lockheed Martin, NASA and the European Space Agency.
Orion is set to orbit the moon unmanned during the debut flight of NASA's heavy-lift Space Launch System rocket, scheduled for late 2018, but it is also assessing the feasibility of flying two astronauts on that mission.
During the lunar flyby mission, the vest will be strapped to a "phantom" torso dummy, a device used to monitor radiation absorption.
Another phantom will fly unprotected and the two will be analysed after they return to Earth.
NASA had no immediate comment on how the test could be affected if the agency decided to put astronauts on Orion.
Stemrad's chief technologist, Gideon Waterman, said the vest needed to combine density with flexibility to protect astronauts while enabling them to move about as freely as possible.
Mock-ups have been made, and the first protective vest is expected to be produced by the end of the year, Mr Milstein said.
"Based on our simulations, we're sure it works, but to be 100 per cent sure, we're sending it up on EM-1," he said, referring to NASA's Exploration Mission-1, the first flight of the combined Space Launch System rocket and the Orion capsule.
Reuters
Topics: astronomy-space, science-and-technology, spacecraft, israel