Protecting Astro/Cosmonauts

[beecee]

https://phys.org/news/2017-07-team-astronauts-space.html

 

 

Scientists at The Australian National University (ANU) have designed a new nano material that can reflect or transmit light on demand with temperature control, opening the door to technology that protects astronauts in space from harmful radiation.

 

Lead researcher Dr Mohsen Rahmani from ANU said the material was so thin that hundreds of layers could fit on the tip of a needle and could be applied to any surface, including spacesuits.

"Our invention has a lot of potential applications, such as protecting astronauts or satellites with an ultra-thin film that can be adjusted to reflect various dangerous ultraviolet or infrared radiation in different environments," said Dr Rahmani, an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Early Career Research Fellow at the Nonlinear Physics Centre within the ANU Research School of Physics and Engineering.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-07-team-astronauts-space.html#jCp

 

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adfm.201700580/abstract;jsessionid=0494FE417FB4F8C8655256F0E3F1F72D.f02t03?systemMessage=Wiley+Online+Library+%27Journal+Subscribe+%2F+Renew%27+page+will+be+down+on+Wednesday+05th+July+starting+at+08.00+EDT+%2F+13.00+BST+%2F+17.30+IST+for+up+to+75+minutes+due+to+essential+maintenance.

 

Reversible Thermal Tuning of All-Dielectric Metasurfaces

 

 

Abstract

All-dielectric metasurfaces provide a powerful platform for a new generation of flat optical devices, in particular, for applications in telecommunication systems, due to their low losses and high transparency in the infrared. However, active and reversible tuning of such metasurfaces remains a challenge. This study experimentally demonstrates and theoretically justifies a novel scenario of the dynamical reversible tuning of all-dielectric metasurfaces based on the temperature-dependent change of the refractive index of silicon. How to design an all-dielectric metasurface with sharp resonances by achieving interference between magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole modes of constituted nanoparticles arranged in a 2D lattice is shown. Thermal tuning of these resonances can cause drastic but reciprocal changes in the directional scattering of the metasurface in a spectral window of 75 nm. This change can result in a 50-fold enhancement of the radiation directionality. This type of reversible tuning can play a significant role in novel flat optical devices including the metalenses and metaholograms.

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One of the biggest problems in putting Humans on Mars [or elsewhere] is radiation.

Is this and the continued experiments and investigations into nanotechnology the answer?

I hope so. I would dearly love us to set foot on Mars before I kick the bucket!

Any other opinions?

Edited July 3, 2017 by beecee