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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

A gem of a material could provide a shield for spacecraft

Material that includes carbon with the same structure as diamond could be used to protect satellites from space radiation.
Image of NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter taken by the Perseverance rover.

Carbon-fibre composites, which have been used on spacecraft such as the Mars helicopter Ingenuity, could be shielded from space radiation by a polymer-carbon coating. Credit: NASA/JPL-CALTECH/LANL/CNES/CNRS/SPL

A lightweight, radiation-resistant coating could one day be used to protect spacecraft and their scientific payloads from the harsh conditions of outer space1.

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Nature 615, 769 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00834-3

References

  1. Delkowski, M., Smith, C. T. G., Anguita, J. V. & Silva, S. R. P. Sci. Adv. 9, eadd6947 (2023).

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