Materials design study reveals enhanced radiation and micrometeoroid shielding in spacesuit fabrics using boron nitride nanotubes, indicating improved astronaut safety for deep-space missions.
Within the next five years NASA intends to be back on the moon and within the next decade, to have long-duration, deep-space exploration missions on Mars. Radiation doses predicted for current shielding systems exceed the allowable limits for these missions. In order to achieve these goals, we propose the novel use of nanomaterials in the development of a thermal radiation and micrometeoroid protection garment for advanced spacesuits with applications to radiation protection in space systems. Preliminary results from radiation transport modeling demonstrate the improved shielding capabilities of boron nitride nanotubes (BNNT) over traditional space system shielding materials. Combining the novel BNNT material with Aerogels and more traditional materials such as carbon nanotubes and polyethylene, we have developed a material system which will be able to incorporate radiation shielding with thermal and micrometeoroid protection. A prototype was manufactured demonstrating the materials development capabilities and compatible applications for the proposed system.
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Paige et al. (2020) studied this question.
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