BACKGROUND Space travel is associated with continuous low dose rate exposure to high linear energy transfer (LET) radiation. Pathophysiological manifestations after low dose radiation exposure are strongly influenced by non-cytocidal radiation effects, including changes in the microbiome and host gene expression. Although the importance of the gut microbiome in the maintenance of human health i...

Outside the protection of Earth's atmosphere, astronauts are exposed to low doses of high linear energy transfer (LET) radiation. Future NASA plans for deep space missions or a permanent settlement on the moon are limited by the health risks associated with space radiation exposures. There is a paucity of direct epidemiological data for low dose exposures to space radiation-relevant high LET io...

The multi-user facility EXPOSE-E was designed by the European Space Agency to enable astrobiology research in space (low-Earth orbit). On 7 February 2008, EXPOSE-E was carried to the International Space Station (ISS) on the European Technology Exposure Facility (EuTEF) platform in the cargo bay of Space Shuttle STS-122 Atlantis. The facility was installed at the starboard cone of the Columbus m...

NASA’s exploration goals are focused on deep space travel and Mars surface operations. To accomplish these goals, large structures will be necessary to transport crew and logistics in the initial stages, and NASA will need to keep the crew and the vehicle safe during transport and any surface activities. One of the major challenges of deep space travel is the space radiation environment and its...

This paper describes the ongoing development of a radiation-tolerant version of ITT Industries’ Low-Power Transceiver (LPT). The LPT is a compact, flexible device that can be configured to perform custom communications and navigation functions in terrestrial, airborne, and space applications. The radiation-tolerant version of the LPT maintains most of the LPT’s existing functionality and reprog...

Using reconfigurable, static random-access memory (SRAM) based field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) for space-based computation has been an exciting area of research for the past decade. In comparison with traditional radiation-hardened electronics, these devices would allow spacecrafts to be more adaptive and responsive to changing mission needs. Unfortunately, all commercially available SRA...

Traditional radiation hardened or “rad hard” parts are generally considered to be capable of withstanding the most severe space environments. In fact, these devices are designed and fabricated with the specific goal of enduring the harshest space radiation environments. And while they have tremendous radiation capabilities, these parts are more expensive and less advanced that today’s commercia...

Charge Injection Devices (CIDs) have historically played a niche role in visible imager technologies, mainly for applications requiring high radiation tolerance. They have not exhibited the radiometric performance of competing visibleimaging technologies such as CCDs, and so have not been widely applied to space instrument systems. Recent advances in CIDs have demonstrated much higher radiometr...

A new physics package solves radiation transport equations in one space dimension, multiple energy groups and directions. A discontinuous finite element method discretizes radiation intensity with respect to space and angle, and a continuous finite element method discretizes electron temperature in space. A splitting method solves the resulting linear equations. This is a one-dimensional analog...