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Nanoelectronics and nanosensors for space exploration

  • Engineered Nanomaterials in Aerospace
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Abstract

Space missions have unique requirements for payloads of electronics, sensors, instruments, and other components in terms of mass, footprint, power consumption, and resistance to various types of radiation. Nanomaterials offer the potential for future radiation-hardened or radiation-immune electronics. Gas-sensing needs in planetary exploration and crew-cabin air-quality monitoring are currently being met by bulky instruments. Routine health checkups of astronauts and testing of water in space habitats are being done on a delayed basis by bringing samples back to Earth. Instead, nanomaterials can be used to construct ultrasmall, postage-stamp-sized gas/vapor sensors with selective discrimination and also lab-on-a-chip biosensors for water-quality monitoring and crew health monitoring.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge their current colleagues at the Center for Nanotechnology Jing Li, Yijiang Lu, Ami Hannon, Beomseok Kim, Ramprasad Ghandhiraman, and Michael Oye, and past colleagues Rakesh Kumar, Adaikappan Periyakaruppan, Jun Li, Vivek Jain, Bin Yu, and Xuhui Sun for their contributions to the technologies discussed here.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. NASA Ames Research Center, USA

    M. Meyyappan, Jessica E. Koehne & Jin-Woo Han

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  1. M. Meyyappan
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Meyyappan, M., Koehne, J.E. & Han, JW. Nanoelectronics and nanosensors for space exploration. MRS Bulletin 40, 822–828 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1557/mrs.2015.223

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