A brief review of web info indicates that might be true. Also found plans for my new radiation proof house. I'm not sure it's fireproof though! 
Posted on 12/09/2003 8:35:04 PM PST by demlosers
Local researchers develop composite that can shelter astronauts from radiation
Researchers in Huntsville may have found a better shield to protect astronauts from cosmic radiation.
What's more, the scientists hope their rigid, yet flexible, lightweight material could become the structural skin and walls of spaceships, planet outposts and space stations.
"What we are doing here with the radiation study program will affect all other long-term NASA space exploration missions," said Ed Semmes, NASA radiation study program manager at the National Space Science and Technology Center. The NSSTC and Marshall Space Flight Center are working together on the project.
"Going anywhere in the solar system or universe will depend on protecting crews from radiation," Semmes said. "Lunar exploration, which may be in the near future, and if we chose to go to Mars in the future, will be dependent on this research."
Semmes said researchers here are also developing a better radiation model that would show NASA the risks of space radiation and how to combat those. He estimates researchers should have answers by 2008.
Better shield
The shield developed in the past year is called a material composite. It is composed of several sheets of polyethylene heavily impregnated with hydrogen, said Raj Kaul, a NSSTC materials scientist. The hydrogen breaks down, or diffuses, harmful radiation that could cause cancer.
The shielding material breaks up harmful cosmic radiation by reducing heavy ions into lighter ions. Exposure to lighter ions doesn't cause the same harmful effects to people that cosmic radiation does, said Nasser Barghouty, also a materials scientist.
"We have the data today for (the) space shuttle and space station," Barghouty said. "When we go to Mars, the question is, are these numbers going to hold? Do we have to be much more conservative?
"Much of what we do is an uncertain element. The question is, how do we minimize that?"
NASA and the Russian Space Agency have been sending probes to Mars for 40 years. Scientists know the radiation counts in space and on Mars' surface, but they don't know how long-term exposure would affect a space traveler, Barghouty said.
The Huntsville-developed material is strong and flexible enough to be used to build a spaceship or a space station module, Kaul said.
"We are trying to develop a material that is multifunctional," Kaul said. "If we make a spacecraft out of it, then it is not only a structural material, but it also protects the astronauts from radiation, too. This material accomplishes those goals."
Kaul said the material also acts as a shield for micrometeroids, high-speed small particles that sometimes strike a spacecraft and cause damage. "It gives us many types of protection all in one package," Semmes said.
It also can be shaped, Kaul said, into almost any mold NASA would need. "Because it is in sheets it can be laid on a mold and then it would assume that shape. It's very flexible," he said.
A safer station
Since 2000, the space station has been permanently staffed, but the station isn't directly shielded from radiation. Crew members are exposed to radiation daily, and scientists calculate that they can safely withstand only about six months of exposure at a time, Semmes said.
Now, if an unexpected solar storm crops up, space station crews are forced to take shelter in the rear of the living module because the equipment there provides better shielding.
Station modules are made mostly of aluminum, which doesn't provide much radiation shielding, said Jim Adams, cosmic ray team leader at the NSSTC and the radiation program scientist.
"Depending on the age and sex of the crew members, within their career, they are limited to maybe two or three of these missions. Some are limited to only one. It depends on variables of their health," Adams said.
"The point of this program is, that with the International Space Station on orbit now, and we do have people on orbit for such a long time, these limits have actually come to bear - so that we are not able to allow astronauts to have the longer careers they would like or to fly as many times as they would like."
Also, aluminum conducts heat out of the space station, "meaning it is cold in there," Adams said. "This material doesn't do that. It will keep the heat within the spacecraft."
Adams said that would reduce the number of heaters and fans needed aboard a spacecraft. "That saves weight, and more importantly for the crews, it cuts down on the noise generated by the fans."
Initial tests prove the shield protects humans from radiation, but scientists will need more information, Semmes said. The materials will be tested extensively over the next few years in Huntsville and at Brookhaven Lab, on Long Island, N.Y.
"We hope that this will be the shield that gets our crews to Mars and beyond," Semmes said. "In a few years, the work done here in Huntsville might be part of every spacecraft."
Times Aerospace Writer, shelbys@htimes.com
A brief review of web info indicates that might be true. Also found plans for my new radiation proof house. I'm not sure it's fireproof though!
Is it edible too?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.