NASA selected 21 space radiation research proposals for funding. Approximately $19 million will be spent on the research to support the Vision for Space Exploration.
The goal of NASA’s Space Radiation Program is to ensure humans can safely live and work in space. Safely means acceptable risks are not exceeded during crews’ lifetime. Acceptable risks include limits on post and multi-mission consequences, such as excess lifetime fatal cancer vulnerability.
Exposure to radiation during space flight is unavoidable. Space radiation penetrates the crew, spacesuits, spacecraft, habitats, and equipment. The interaction of radiation with materials changes both; and the interaction with living organisms leads to potentially harmful health consequences. The consequences include tissue damage, cancer, cataracts, electronic upsets, and material degradation.
Space radiation is distinct from terrestrial forms. Space radiation is comprised of high-energy protons, heavy ions and their secondaries produced in shielding and tissue. Since there are no human epidemiological data for these radiation types, risk estimation is derived from mechanistic understanding. The estimates are based on radiation physics, molecular, cellular, and tissue biology related to cancer and other risks.
NASA received 115 responses to the request for proposals issued on August 24, 2004. Proposals were peer-reviewed by scientific and technical experts from academia, government, and industry. The 21 proposals will seek to reduce the uncertainties in risk predictions, including cancer, degenerative tissue damage, cataracts, hereditary, fertility, and sterility. They also cover acute risks and development of effective shielding or biological countermeasures for them.
List of grant recipients:
— Deep Space ICCHIBAN: An International Comparison of Space Radiation Dosimeters aboard the NASA Deep Space Test Bed, (Principal Investigator (PI): Eric Benson, Eril Research Inc, San Rafael, Calif., $175,000)
— Inflammation in the Brain after Particulate Irradiation Predisposes the Hippocampus to a Heightened Vulnerability after a Secondary Insult, (PI: John Fike, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, Calif., $1.1M)
— Simulated Microgravity and Radiation-Induced Bone Degeneration: Oxidative Stress- and p53-Dependent Mechanisms, (PI: Ruth Globus, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., $1.56M)
— Measurements of Fragmentation Cross Sections and Particle Spectra For Galactic Cosmic Ray-Like Nuclei between 3 and 10 GeV/nucleon at the BNL AGS, (PI: Jack Miller, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, Calif., $307,000)
— Effect of Space Radiation on Degenerative Tissue Disease, Genetic Instability and Oxidative DNA Damage in Ataxia Telangiectasia Deficient Mice, (PI: Robert Schiestl, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, Calif., $1.2M)
— A Role for Homologous Recombination in Complex DSB Repair after HZE Particles, (PI: Claudia Wiese, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, Calif., $1.2M)
— Determination of Radiation Shielding Effectiveness using a Tissue Equivalent Proportional Counter to Measure Dose and Quality Factors, (PI: Thomas Borak, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colo., $637,000)
— Shielding Solutions-Novel Shielding and Multi-Functional Thermal and Structural Materials, (PI: Janine Thorton, Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Littleton, Colo., $600,000)
— Solid Hydrogen Radiation Shield Testing, (PI: Stephen Bates, Thoughtventions Unlimited LLC, Glastonbury, Conn., $712,000)
— High Performance Polymer Nanocomposites for Radiation Shielding, (PI: Julie Harmon, University of South Florida, Tampa, Fla., $588,000)
— Effects of Estrogen on Cataract Induction After Exposure to High LET Radiation, (PI: Joseph Dynlacht, Indiana University, Indianapolis, Ind., $1.4M)
— Cross Sections for HZE Transport Calculations, (PI: John Wefel, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, La., $600,000)
— Ionizing Radiation and its Effects on Cardiovascular Function in the Context of Space Flight, (PI: Dan Berkowitz, The Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Baltimore, Md., $1.2M)
— Mitigating High Z Radiation induced Genomic Instability by Non-Protein Thiols, (PI: William Morgan, University of Maryland, Baltimore, Baltimore, Md., $1.1M)
— Human Endothelial Cells in 2-D and 3-D Systems; Non-Cancer Effects and Space-Related Radiations, (PI: Charles Geard, Columbia University, New York, N.Y., $1.2M)
— Mechanisms of Ocular Cataracts, (PI: Eric Hall, Columbia University, New York, N.Y., $1.2M)
— Radiation Shielding Space Coatings: An Approach to In Space Application of Coatings, (PI: Mark Soucek, University of Akron, Akron, Ohio, $594,000)
— Neurogenesis and Cognition in Human apoE Transgenic Mice following 56Fe Radiation, (PI: Jacob Raber, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Ore., $1.2M)
— Molecular and Cellular Effects of Heavy Ion Fragmentation due to Shielding, (PI: Sandeep Burma, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, $1.2M)
— Weight Windows Variance Reduction Technique for the HETC Monte Carlo Code, (PI: Robert Singleterry, NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va., $1.1M)
— Multifunctional Hybrid Polymeric Materials for Radiation Shielding, (PI: Robert Orwoll, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Va., $449,000)
