Space missions, such as Nasa’s Orion that will take astronauts to Mars, are pushing the limits of human exploration and will require electronic circuitry to maintain operation for years at a time.
But the continuous stream of damaging cosmic radiation can harm or even destroy onboard electronics.
MIT researchers believe the risk to future missions could be reduced with carbon nanotubes that are configured to maintain their electrical properties and memory after being bombarded by high amounts of radiation.
The lifetime and distance of deep space missions are currently limited by the energy efficiency and robustness of the technology driving them.
As well as radiation protection, carbon nanotubes, which are just one atom thick, are expected to make transistors more energy efficient compared to the standard silicon-based versions.
In principle, the ultra-small size of the nanotubes should also help reduce the effects that radiation would have when striking...