The AstroRad is personal protective equipment for astronauts to wear beyond LEO that markedly reduces Radiation Exposure Induced Death (REID) such as cancer while eliminating the possibility of Acute Radiation Syndrome (ARS) due to SPE. AstroRad was co-developed by StemRad and Lockheed Martin to mitigate SPE effects, with initial research and development support coming from the Space Florida-Israel Innovation Partnership program.



Our Representatives

Rajarshi Pal Chowdhury

Lead Scientist, StemRad Inc

Lead Scientist

StemRad Inc

Oren Milstein

CEO, StemRad

CEO

StemRad

Founder of StemRad, a developer of personal radiation protection solutions for space and Earth applications.

Shirit Schwarz

Product Management, As..., StemRad

Product Management, AstroRad

StemRad

Sapir Lazar

Research Manager, StemRad

Research Manager

StemRad

StemRad is an Israeli-American start-up company that develops and manufactures personal protective equipment (PPE) against ionizing radiation. I am involved in the R&D of StemRad’s expand...

The AstroRad uses a proprietary smart shielding design to selectively protect those organs and tissues which are most sensitive to radiation in terms of REID probability.

This approach provides the greatest biological impact of protection with the least amount of mass. Tissue weighting factors are assigned to organs and tissues in the body to reflect the variance in radiation sensitivity, with organs such as the lungs, bone marrow, colon, stomach, breasts and ovaries being among the most sensitive. Selective protection of these organs, and tissue-resident stem cell concentrations within them, was accomplished by designing variable shielding thickness to complement the body’s own shielding. This methodology results in an intriguing, functional topographic structure.

In July 2018, The Israel Space Agency, which is sponsoring StemRad’s space activity, signed an agreement with Lockheed Martin to launch the vest to the International Space Station (ISS) for advanced ergonomic studies in microgravity. This follows the signing of an agreement with NASA and the German Space Center (DLR) to study the AstroRad aboard NASA's Orion vehicle’s mission around the moon, the last test flight before NASA begins deep-space manned missions.

The Comfort and Human Factors AstroRad Radiation Garment Evaluation (CHARGE) study is currently ongoing aboard ISS to ensure that this personal protective equipment will be ready for operational use and will not interfere with astronaut’s day-to-day activities.