Description: NanoSonic has recently developed ultra-lightweight, durable, high hydrogen containing Thoraeus Rubber™ nanocomposites that may serve as radiation protection for space transportation vehicles as well as astronauts against DNA damaging high-energy particles and ionizing radiation. Thoraeus Rubber maximizes shielding with minimum bulk by grading alternating high and low atomic number (Z) nanoparticles within an energy dissipating hydrogenous neutron shielding polymer network to slow high-energy neutron elastic collisions and absorb resultant gamma rays, X-rays and high-energy particles. For comparable mass and areal densities, Thoraeus Rubber attenuates twice the level of gamma radiation under a 137Cs source relative to the COTS product and Ta at one-fourth the mass density, and with zero secondary ionization. The TRL of Thoraeus Rubber shall be increased from 3 - 5 via measurements at Brookhaven Radiation Effects Facility through our radiation expert and Certified Health Physicist partner at Colorado State University (CSU). TRL 7 shall be reached during Phase II upon space habitat construction and flight-testing with our space prime partners. TRL 9 shall be attained upon demonstration of Thoraeus Rubber on space vehicles traveling with humans through low Earth orbit (LEO), geosynchronous orbit, Moon, Mars, and the Asteroids that enable NASA's Human Exploration goals.

Benefits: Ultra-lightweight Thoraeus Rubber will be primarily be transitioned onto aerospace transportation vehicles, large space structures such as space stations, orbiters, landers, rovers, habitats, and spacesuits as lightweight radiation shielding to shield astronauts. Specifically, Thoraeus Rubber shall protect from humans against all particulate radiations, including electrons, protons, neutrons, alpha particles, and light to heavy ions up to iron to enable travel beyond-Low Earth Orbit (LEO) as the foundation for leadership in U.S. space exploration for the next 500 years. Test missions shall encompass cis-lunar space, the Lagrange points, near-Earth asteroids (NEAs), Earth's moon, the moons of Mars, and Mars as part of a sustained journey of exploration in the inner solar system. Structural, yet compliant, cryogenic, radiation resistant Thoraeus Rubber™ composite materials having unique morphology and multiple controlled electromagnetic properties are possible via NanoSonic's innovative automated ESA manufacturing approach.

Thoraeus Rubber offers dual-use non-NASA applications beyond radiation shielding as flexible, energy dissipating, textiles and composites with tailored mechanical properties that can withstand space suit mobility, habitat inflation, and crew exploration vehicle impact vibrations. Thoraeus Rubber adaptive materials represent a new class of robust, stowable, deployable structures and shielding materials for spacecraft based on covalently high performance polymers and nanostructured conductive particles. Thoraeus Rubber multifunctional materials also offer dynamic thermal control for space suits, thermal barrier protection for high temperature platforms, and tailored EMI shielding for lightweight cable sheaths. Adaptive Thoraeus Rubber based on NanoSonic's shape memory polymers offer state-of-the-art multifunctional shielding, utility as sensors/actuators for shape changing inflatables, rigidizable/deployable aerospace structures, and protective coatings against electrostatic charging and abrasion. NanoSonic's advanced cryogenic tolerant polymers may be combined with our family of nanostructure materials produced in house (noble metals, magnetics, ceramics and quantum dots) for limitless combinations of multifunctional adaptive and active materials for civil and space applications.