At last we can reveal what we have been working on these past months!
Last summer, we participated in a challenge held by Airbus DS kiwi and were selected as one of two university teams to fly an experiment to the International Space Station (ISS). kiwi partnered with the American company Space Tango to give students the opportunity to conduct a scientific experiment of their choice in space. Space Tango operates two TangoLab facilities aboard the ISS, each capable of holding several experiments in roughly cube-shaped boxes.
During a pitch contest, we were able to convince the kiwi team of our idea to test a new class of radiation sensors. The idea for the experiment originates in the research that we conduct as part of our PhD studies at the Technical University of Munich. Our goal is to ensure astronauts stay healthy during their stays on the ISS and on future missions to the Moon, Mars, and other destinations in our solar system. Precisely measuring the radiation environment is a crucial part of that process.
We have partnered with the crowdfunding platform SpaceStarters to collect the funding necessary for developing, building, and operating our experiment on the ISS. The campaign is live now and we appreciate every bit of support, no matter how small. You can access our campaign profile here: https://www.spacestarters.com/support/3d-dos
We will keep posting updates in the coming weeks and explain the scientific motivation and technical aspects of our experiment in more detail. So we advise you to visit our homepage frequently or to subscribe to our newsletter.
Ad astra,
Thomas & Martin
SpaceRad Laboratory 