Universe Today

Image credit: NASA

NASA and the US Department of Energy have set up a new laboratory to study the effect of radiation on astronauts as they fly outside the Earth?s protective atmosphere. Located at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, the $34 million NASA Space Radiation Laboratory will have 80 researchers annually. The teams will do a variety of experiments with the kinds of radiation found in space in hopes to better understand how it damages living tissue. This can help NASA predict risks and develop countermeasures when risking astronauts to long-term exposure to radiation.

Imagine a human spacecraft crew voyaging through space. A satellite sends a warning; energetic particles are being accelerated from the sun’s corona, sending dangerous radiation toward their spacecraft, but the crew isn’t worried. Long before their journey, researchers on Earth conducted experiments to accurately measure the hazards of space radiation and developed new materials and countermeasures to protect them.

To ensure the safety of spacecraft crews, NASA biologists and physicists will perform thousands of experiments at the new $34 million NASA Space Radiation Laboratory (NSRL) commissioned today at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, N.Y. The laboratory, built in cooperation between NASA and DOE, is one of the few facilities that can simulate the harsh space radiation environment.

“Scientists will use this facility as a research tool to protect today’s crews on the International Space Station and to enable the next generation of explorers to safely go beyond Earth’s protected neighborhood,” said Guy Fogleman, director of the Bioastronautics Research Division, Office of Biological and Physical Research (OBPR), at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

Space radiation produced by the sun and other galactic sources is more dangerous and hundreds of times more intense than radiation sources, such as medical X-rays or normal cosmic radiation, usually experienced on Earth. When the intensely ionizing particles found in space strike human tissue, it can result in cell damage and may eventually lead to cancer.

Approximately 80 investigators will conduct research annually at the new facility. “The NSRL will enable us to triple the ability of researchers to perform radiobiology experiments and the resulting science knowledge,” said Frank Cucinotta, the program scientist for NASA’s Space Radiation Health Project at Johnson Space Center, Houston. “Scientists at universities and medical centers across the nation will use the facility to investigate how space radiation damages cells and tissues such as the eyes, brain and internal organs,” he said.

For each experiment, an accelerator produces beams of protons or heavy ions. These ions are typical of those accelerated in cosmic sources and by the sun. The beams of ions move through a 328-foot transport tunnel to the 400-square-foot, shielded target hall. There, they hit the target, which may be a biological sample or shielding material.

“Physicists will measure how specific particles interact with shielding material, ” said James Adams, the program scientist for the Space Radiation Shielding Program at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. “We can use this knowledge to improve our ability to predict the effectiveness of various materials and to develop and test new materials.”

At NSRL, the radiation health team will perform extensive tests with biological samples placed in the path of the radiation. They will use the information to understand mechanisms of radiation damage to cells, predict risks, and develop countermeasures that mitigate radiation effects. “Advances in radiation detection, shielding and other radiation-mitigation techniques may be applied to workers in space and on Earth and may lead to improved use of radiation to treat disease on Earth and prevent radiation-induced illnesses,” Fogleman said.

Since the 1970s, NASA has been using particle accelerators to understand and mitigate the risks of space radiation. The NSRL will take advantage of the high-energy particle accelerators at Brookhaven National Laboratory, a DOE facility established in 1947. Construction of the new facility began in 1998, and was funded in part by NASA’s Office of Biological and Physical Research.

Original Source: NASA News Release

Image credit: NASA

A team of NASA researchers have created a remote control plane that gets its power from a ground-based laser that tracks it as it flies around. The model plane has a 3.5 metre wingspan, and only weighs 300 grams. It collects energy from a bank of photovoltaic cells to power its propeller. Although this is just a prototype, future versions could be much larger and fly above a city indefinitely providing telecommunications services – it could be an inexpensive replacement for satellites.

Ever since the dawn of powered flight, it has been necessary for all aircraft to carry fuel onboard ? whether in the form of batteries, fuel, solar cells, or even a human “engine” ? in order to stay aloft.

A team of researchers from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards, Calif., and the University of Alabama in Huntsville is trying to change that.

They have now chalked up a major accomplishment? and a “first.” The team has developed and demonstrated a small-scale aircraft that flies solely by means of propulsive power delivered by an invisible, ground-based laser. The laser tracks the aircraft in flight, directing its energy beam at specially designed photovoltaic cells carried onboard to power the plane’s propeller.

“The craft could keep flying as long as the energy source, in this case the laser beam, is uninterrupted,” said Robert Burdine, Marshall’s laser project manager for the tests. “This is the first time that we know of that a plane has been powered only by the energy of laser light. It really is a groundbreaking development for aviation.”

“We feel this really was a tremendous success for the project,” added David Bushman, project manager for beamed power at Dryden. “We are always trying to develop new technologies that will enable new capabilities in flight, and we think this is a step in the right direction.”

The plane, with its five-foot wingspan, weighs only 11 ounces and is constructed from balsa wood and carbon fiber tubing covered with Mylar film. Designed and built at NASA Dryden, the aircraft is a one-of-a-kind, radio-controlled model airplane. A special panel of photovoltaic cells, selected and tested by team participants at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, is designed to efficiently convert the energy from the laser wavelength into electricity to power a small electric motor that spins the propeller.

The lightweight, low-speed plane was flown indoors at the Marshall center to prevent wind and weather from affecting the test flights.

After the craft was released from a launching platform inside the building, the laser beam was aimed at the airplane’s panels, causing the propeller to spin and propel the craft around the building, lap after lap. When the laser beam was turned off, the airplane glided to a landing.

The team made a similar series of demonstration flights in 2002 at NASA Dryden, using a theatrical searchlight as a power source. The recent flights at the Marshall center are the first known demonstration of an aircraft flying totally powered by a ground-based laser. The demonstration is a key step toward the capability to beam power to a plane aloft. Without the need for onboard fuel or batteries, such a plane could carry scientific or communication equipment, for instance, and stay in flight indefinitely. The concept offers potential commercial value to the remote sensing and telecommunications industries, according to Bushman.

“A telecommunications company could put transponders on an airplane and fly it over a city,” Bushman said. “The aircraft could be used for everything from relaying cell phone calls to cable television or Internet connections.”

Laser power beaming is a promising technology for future development of aircraft design and operations. The concept supports NASA?s mission-critical goals for the development of revolutionary aerospace technologies.

Original Source: NASA News Release