Description: Advances in radiation shielding technology remain an important challenge for NASA in order to protect their astronauts, particularly as NASA grows closer to manned missions to the moon and Mars. Polyethylene is a readily available and structurally sound thermoplastic that has recently gained a fair amount of notoriety as an effective radiation shield. GTL is proposing to incorporate polyethylene into its BHL technology. The result will be a lightweight and multifunctional composite material that can be used as primary, secondary and interior spacecraft structure and protect the crew from radiation. Additionally, this material's architecture can be tailored to provide the optimal combination of structural strength and radiation protection for any application. Using BHL-PE to create storage containers between structural layers for items such as food, supplies, treated waste and regolith, will these items to serve as multipurpose radiation shielding and improve the overall radiation absorption potential of BHL-PE

Benefits: GTL's BHL-PE technology offers the potential of a multifunctional and lightweight composite material capable of providing primary, secondary, and interior structure to all deep space craft and equipment while shielding its crew from radiation. Such a capability will be of high priority to NASA once it gets closer to launching manned missions to Mars. Potential applications include all deep space composite structures such as space stations, orbiters, landers, rovers, habitats, and spacesuits.

The BHL-PE technology and its variants could find application in a wide range of systems. Panels could be used by DoD to increase the radiation shielding around mobile medical facilities to protect nearby personnel. The technology could also be applied in consumer vehicles or aircraft.