The NASA Durability, Damage Tolerance, & Reliability Branch has expressed a need for CRIT. One technical mission of this branch is in calculating the minimum shielding required for humans inside of spacecraft. CAD models used for these calculations can have numerous errors and require extensive time to repair. CRIT will allow users to rapidly repair models and run radiation transport calculations. The NASA Ames group has also expressed interest in using CRIT for their BioSentinel program. This mission will send a spacecraft past the ionization belt into an intense radiation environment. To meet the goals of this mission, the BioSentinel CubeSat must maximize radiation dose on a biomass payload while providing enough shielding to sensitive onboard electronics to complete the mission. Use of CRIT throughout the design process will aid in rapid design optimization. NASA Ames has mentioned that other missions in AES can benefit from our technology development as well.
XL Scientific has found several organizations interested in CRIT. The Air Force Research Labs (AFRL) space vehicles directorate is interested in this tool to calculate radiation dose on critical components of their vehicles. Similar to NASA, AFRL has numerous CAD models that require repair before they can be simulated. CRIT will reduce the time spent on these repairs. AFRL is interested in calculating dose on electronics. Varian Medical Systems (VMS) is also interested in CRIT. VMS is a major company in nuclear medicine and develops the radiation transport code Attila. CRIT could be run or integrated with Attila to better support this business sector. Our team is in discussions with VMS for the potential of using them as a transition partner. Presbyterian MD Anderson cancer center could benefit from the dose calculations provided by CRIT. Outside of the government, the private space industry is a much larger group of customers that have a need for radiation calculations on payloads.
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