Blanket protects lunar outposts
Specialty Fabrics Review | August 2009
Textile engineering students at North Carolina State University (NCSU) have the next manned moon landing covered with a blanket that protects lunar outposts from radiation while storing energy for astronauts’ use. The project, one of 10 finalists in the Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts Academic Linkage competition, tackles one of NASA’s key concerns about moon missions that will likely last months at a time—cosmic rays and solar flares that make dangerous radiation hard to stop.
The “lunar texshield” is made from a lightweight polymer composite with a layer of radiation shielding that deflects or absorbs radiation. The outer shield layer includes solar cells to generate electricity. The design is flexible, lightweight, has a large surface area, and is easy to transport and deploy. “We understand the properties associated with different textile materials,” says Dr. Warren Jasper, NCSU professor of textile engineering and project advisor. “That gives us unique insight on how to troubleshoot some of these issues.”
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When cosmic rays hit matter, they produce a spray of secondary radiation particles that can penetrate human skin. The lunar texshield would protect astronauts from the damage. Photo: NCSU.
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7:14 am CDT
Editor's Note
The blanket referenced in this article was produced by a finalist in a student competition and is not an actual product that is comercially available.
7:45 pm CDT
Skepticism
As much as I admire NC State's engineers and proven science department, this is not the first time we have been casually informed of an astounding claim, without sufficient detail about how well it works. According to the National Academies, in "Managing Space Radiation in the New Era of Space Exploration (2008) [http://www.nap.org/catalog/12045.html] a roundtrip manned expedition to Mars, for example, would result in each crew member exceeding NASA's present individually assessed lifetime probable risk of radiation exposure induced death (4%). A fabric mitigating this risk on the lunar surface is reasonable, but affording protection from such risk as effectively as does Earth's magnetic field and atmosphere is not reasonable, most especially the risk from cosmic rays at or above 100 MeV. Since the reports of this fabric's usefulness have not touched on any detail regarding its certain limitations, we are understandibly skeptical. It begs clarification as to just how this fabric changes hard numbers on well-established risk probabilities. With such numbers, we're prepared to salute a revolutionary development, equal to shielding equal to 11 meters of regolith. But, without such numbers these claims made for Lunatex seem utterly fantastic.
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