Student Experiment on Radiation Shielding Technology Selected for ISS Testing
Results Could Improve Radiation Protection for Astronauts, Cancer Patients
Florida Tech’s inaugural Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) has a winning project: “Hydrogel-Radiation shielding viability under the influence of microgravity.” Eleven student teams submitted proposals for experiments to be performed aboard the International Space Station (ISS), three finalists were chosen by a selection committee featuring Provost John Z. Kiss and Andrew Palmer, and SSEP’s own review board then chose the winner.
The winning team is made up of five engineering students: mechanical engineering sophomore Leighton Karpina, aerospace engineering junior Leyla Avant, biomedical engineering juniors Emily Matheson and Caroline Moore, and biomedical engineering Ph.D. student Sampada Koriala. They have until early June to finalize their design before it takes flight this fall.
“This is a strong collaboration among these engineering students,” said Kiss, a space biologist with nine ISS experiments on his resume. “I am very proud of our students.”
They are combining their knowledge to understand how microgravity-induced aggregation affects the integrity of hydrogel networks because any change could affect the networks’ ability to diffuse radiation effectively, the students wrote in their proposal.
Ultimately, their results could improve protection from radiation in space and here on Earth. Better hydrogel materials can both shield astronauts from space radiation and provide special dressing that protects patients during cancer treatments.
Hydrogels are known for their highly absorbent and flexible 3D polymer networks and are used for biomedical and space applications including drug delivery, tissue engineering and radiation shielding.
