The University of Wollongong's Centre for Medical Radiation Physics (CMRP) has won research funding from the European Space Agency for a project to monitor radiation on the agency's upcoming lunar missions.

The project, a collaboration with Norwegian research institution SINTEF and the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens was awarded $625,000.

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CMRP director, Distinguished Professor Anatoly Rozenfeld and Dr Linh Tran will develop microdosimetry instruments to accurately measure space radiation in the environment outside and inside of spacecraft for lunar missions.

Prof Rozenfeld said radiation was one of the main concerns in human space flight, a potential limiting factor for crewed long-term expeditions such as missions to the Moon and to Mars.

"Human missions to the moon are planned within the next few years, but knowledge and data for radiation measurements on the moon is very limited and has primarily been based on calculations using radiation transport models," he said.

"Although these are based on well-established physical principles, there remain uncertainties in the calculation results."

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Other members of the CMRP space radiation team, Associate Professor Susanna Guatelli and Dr David Bolst, will develop simulations of the lunar radiation environment.

Professor Michael Lerch and Associate Professor Marco Petasecca will work on the development of innovative radiation detectors and electronics for them.

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