Project ASTERIA (Advanced Satellite Technology Exploring Radiation in Aerospace)

Long duration spaceflight and manned missions to other planets are in humanity’s foreseeable future. For scientists and engineers, this means finding better methods at protecting everything on board and preserving human life. The purpose of Project ASTERIA (Advanced Satellite Technology Exploring Radiation in Aerospace) is to find ways to mitigate radiation exposure to living organisms. Research has shown that the use of inflatable layering is an effective way of reducing radiation damage by diminishing the particles in each layer. Another mitigation technique is a water wall. The properties of water (H20) has proved to be effective in deflecting radiation molecules. We will implement the use of water walls and inflatable layers to test radiation absorption and deflection.Through this project, we hope to find supporting evidence that technologies such as these could be used for long duration spaceflight. The use of inflatables and water housing to encapsulate the habitat could provide adequate radiation protection to living organisms. Our end goal is to create a CubeSat that will house a living organism with our protection techniques to measure the amount of radiation it receives. Until then, we will simulate the mission in a software system that is capable in managing the orbit and radiation to the spacecraft.