Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2021 - 46

APPLICATION
BRIEFS
Technologies Increase Safety of
Astronauts to the Moon
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA
www.lsu.edu
ADVACAM
Czech Republic
https://advacam.com
Intuitive Machines
Houston, TX
www.intuitivemachines.com
A
s the U.S. lands a craft on the Moon for the first time
since 1972 and the Apollo program, technology built
by Louisiana State University students - in close collaboration
with industry partners - will report back from the
lunar surface.
The Tiger Eye 1 research mission is part of a multi-disciplinary
university-industry collaboration to make future
space travel safer for people and equipment by providing
insight into the complex radiation environment in space.
LSU's radiation detection device is now officially on the
manifest for the broader IM-1 mission, the first in a series
of commercial flights (and the first-ever to land on the
Moon) that will bring science and technology to the lunar
surface through NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Ser v -
ices (CLPS) initiative.
The IM in IM-1 stands for Intuitive Machines, a
Houston-based company that holds NASA and commercial
payload contracts for two separate lunar landings
(IM-1 in the first quarter of 2022 and IM-2 in the fourth
quarter) to help pave the way for the Artemis program,
which will put the first woman and the first person of
color on the Moon as early as 2024. The CLPS flights are
all uncrewed and will make use of rovers and robots to
conduct science experiments and test technologies in different
areas on the lunar surface.
Intuitive Machines is providing the vehicle, communication
network, and mission operations center for LSU's
device to safely land on the Moon and effectively conduct
research. IM's Nova-C lunar lander will be launched from
a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The solar-battery-driven vehicle
will spend two weeks on the surface before succumbing to
lunar night, not far from Tranquility Base where Neil
Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin first walked on the Moon in
July 1969 during the Apollo 11 mission.
Through its medical and health physics program and
the SpaRTAN lab, LSU helps agencies and companies
understand background radiation in space, one of the
hard limits on how much time people and equipment can
spend beyond the Earth's protective magnetic field.
Understanding the types and amounts of radiation that
46
Cov
One reason for the " Tiger Eye " name: the detectors in the device are configured
like a telescope. The radiation enters the aperture, is measured at the first
detector, then travels through the material being tested and is measured again
at the second detector. This allows the researchers to understand how effective
the material is for shielding the cosmic ray environment. (Illustration by
Elsa Hahne/LSU)
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ToC
Tech Briefs, October 2021
The phone-sized LSU radiation detection device will be mounted on the outside
of Intuitive Machines' Nova-C lunar lander with no mass between itself
and the surrounding environment after the lander disconnects from the
SpaceX Falcon 9 launch rocket. (Image: Intuitive Machines)
http://www.lsu.edu https://www.advacam.com http://www.intuitivemachines.com http://www.techbriefs.com http://info.hotims.com/79418-936
Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2021

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