Kaicheng Tan
Dr Erika Harnett
ESS 102
20 January 2017
In the year 2030, astronaut Brian and his crew start a mission heading to Mars to become the first man on it. Their main goals are to see what things are there in the eye, bring back some samples of the land, and search for the possibility of life in depth. It only takes them a few days to reach the Mars using the Electro Magnetic Drive enabled spacecraft. Unfortunately, right after they land on Mars, an unpredicted extreme solar wind and coronal mass ejection also arrive, breaking the engine, the communication system, and several other machines. The survival situation has begun: Before repairing all the electronics, they must fix the force field generating machine first to protect them …show more content…
This paper will discuss such radiation focusing on what are they, what impact they have on human bodies, why it is not a concern on Earth, and what progress has been made to protect astronauts from it.
To begin with, it is worth discussing what are these radiations. NASA’s paper
“Understanding Space Radiation” divided space radiation into three general categories: particles which are generated by the sun, trapped by Earth’s magnetic field, and highenergy protons and heavy ions waves, also known as cosmic rays. Many of these particles are with the size smaller than atoms but are travelling at almost the speed of light and containing extremely high energy.
Particles from the sun are released during solar activities like solar flares or coronal mass ejections. The total energy release from a single solar flare can be equal to more than a million of 100-megatons hydrogen bombs exploding at the same time.
Energetic protons are shot out at a speed close to light, reaching the poles of the Earth in less than 30 minutes [1]. Another NASA’s article, which introduces solar flares’ impact on human activities, mentioned that when these high-energy particles reach the Earth, …show more content…
Damages at tissue’s level were noticed after observing astronauts return from Apollo’s mission. Those astronauts reported that they saw light flashes while adapting to dark environments, which is related to HZE particles passing through their retina, or nuclear interactions happened in the eye. What is more frightening, the brains can also be a target of the damage. Animal experiments show that HZE ions can affect the brain and the central nervous system, resulting in effects including neurodegeneration, altered motor function or performance, late degradation of DNA, accelerated striatal aging, and altered dopamine function [3]. Cells reproduction is a process of copying and expressing information in the DNA, and for cells don’t copy themselves frequently, such as many cells in the central nervous system, their age is generally the age of its owner. Therefore, damages occurring in these cells can be acute and permanent.
Ultraviolet radiation (UV) from the Sun is also damaging. According to WHO’s article talking about the health effect of UV, excessive human exposure to UV may
Dr Erika Harnett
ESS 102
20 January 2017
In the year 2030, astronaut Brian and his crew start a mission heading to Mars to become the first man on it. Their main goals are to see what things are there in the eye, bring back some samples of the land, and search for the possibility of life in depth. It only takes them a few days to reach the Mars using the Electro Magnetic Drive enabled spacecraft. Unfortunately, right after they land on Mars, an unpredicted extreme solar wind and coronal mass ejection also arrive, breaking the engine, the communication system, and several other machines. The survival situation has begun: Before repairing all the electronics, they must fix the force field generating machine first to protect them …show more content…
This paper will discuss such radiation focusing on what are they, what impact they have on human bodies, why it is not a concern on Earth, and what progress has been made to protect astronauts from it.
To begin with, it is worth discussing what are these radiations. NASA’s paper
“Understanding Space Radiation” divided space radiation into three general categories: particles which are generated by the sun, trapped by Earth’s magnetic field, and highenergy protons and heavy ions waves, also known as cosmic rays. Many of these particles are with the size smaller than atoms but are travelling at almost the speed of light and containing extremely high energy.
Particles from the sun are released during solar activities like solar flares or coronal mass ejections. The total energy release from a single solar flare can be equal to more than a million of 100-megatons hydrogen bombs exploding at the same time.
Energetic protons are shot out at a speed close to light, reaching the poles of the Earth in less than 30 minutes [1]. Another NASA’s article, which introduces solar flares’ impact on human activities, mentioned that when these high-energy particles reach the Earth, …show more content…
Damages at tissue’s level were noticed after observing astronauts return from Apollo’s mission. Those astronauts reported that they saw light flashes while adapting to dark environments, which is related to HZE particles passing through their retina, or nuclear interactions happened in the eye. What is more frightening, the brains can also be a target of the damage. Animal experiments show that HZE ions can affect the brain and the central nervous system, resulting in effects including neurodegeneration, altered motor function or performance, late degradation of DNA, accelerated striatal aging, and altered dopamine function [3]. Cells reproduction is a process of copying and expressing information in the DNA, and for cells don’t copy themselves frequently, such as many cells in the central nervous system, their age is generally the age of its owner. Therefore, damages occurring in these cells can be acute and permanent.
Ultraviolet radiation (UV) from the Sun is also damaging. According to WHO’s article talking about the health effect of UV, excessive human exposure to UV may