Makel Engineering and BAE Systems propose to develop processes to
manufacture plastics and composites for radiation shielding based on In
Situ Resources Utilization (ISRU). The production of plastics and
composites will also serve as feedstock for In Situ Manufacturing of a
variety of useful components, such as inflatable structures, replacement
parts, etc. The direction set to NASA by the President on January 2004
placed high emphasis on a robust space exploration program. Affordable
planning and execution of prolonged manned space missions depend upon
the utilization of local resources (e.g., soil, atmosphere, etc.) and
the waste products which are formed in manned spacecraft and surface
bases. The purpose of the investigation is to develop materials and
associated processing technologies for habitat structure on planetary
surfaces to effectively shield humans and sensitive electronics such as
solar arrays and integrated circuits from the harmful effect of deep
space radiation environment. Unlike Earth, on the Lunar or Martian
surface, there is practically no protection from primary deep space
radiation sources such as Solar Particle Events (SPEs) and Galactic
Cosmic Rays (GCRs). SPEs produce intermittent and extremely high fluxes
of charged energetic particles associated with major solar flares.
