If astronauts traveling to Mars will make holes in your brain? – Pay’s Web

On the topic of the dangers that lie in wait for astronauts during space travel there are a lot of myths and inaccuracies. Some fears are most reasonable, while others are greatly exaggerated.

is Not, however, doubt that the journey through space is the most remote from the human environment, and the conditions there prevailing does not provide any chances of survival.

but aren’t we able to protect themselves from polluting there environment using technology and science? Everything points to the fact that it is so: for example, aboard the International Space Station, the astronauts stayed on for quite a long time without much damage to health.

in Recent years, we pay much attention to a possible travel to Mars. Whether we like it or not, we believe this meaning or not, it seems that Mars may be another direction in manned space expeditions of people. Of course, this means that we will have to appropriately protect yourself accepted in space conditions. One of the leading concern is the presence of cosmic radiation, i.e. charged particles, which are located in space objects.

Why we are protected on Earth?

the Protection this gives us the earth’s atmosphere, together with the so-called magnetosferą – Earth’s magnetic field. We have a fairly big luck that they caught most of those particles which otherwise przeleciałyby us.

Exposure of human organism to long-term effect of such particles could have unexpected effects. As noted by scientists from the University of California in his published in nature’s Scientific Reports article, it may affect the Central nervous system of the astronaut. This can lead to slow performance, memory problems, nervousness, depression, and decrease in the ability of decision-making. It should be borne in mind that the results of the single studies (not yet repeated by other researchers), performed on rodents, however, according to the Manager of research Charles Limoli, these results coincide with the results of previous studies of patients exposed to radiation during radiation therapy.

As you can see, these studies are far from ideal, especially because this kind of “null test” can be fraught with mistakes – in the end of radiation therapy are not exposed to healthy people. Despite this, the designers of interplanetary vehicles is the task of creating appropriate shielding. Remember this also Elon Musk during his recent presentation of his “system of interplanetary travel.” Contrary to popular belief, conducting such screening is not technologically difficult, the most simple way is the use of solids of different density and thickness. Of course, this increases the planned weight of the vehicle, it is possible, however, as noted Limoli – screened, primarily a place of rest and sleep of astronauts.

during the held still of space flight dose of the received radiation was relatively small – for example, the dose received by the astronauts of mission “Apollo-11″ comparable to the dose that is exposed to … people living in a year by the sea. When we are planning, however, a longer journey – we must protect. I’m sure that both NASA and SpaceX, and all other interested organizations working on this.