How NASA is Trying to Prevent Radiation Affecting their Astronauts.


Grace Clevenger

Today, NASA is making it so much easier for astronauts to travel in space. Not only for it to easier to travel, it will be much safer. NASA scientists are starting to figure out ways to protect astronauts from radiation from the sun. During the Apollo 16 and 17 missions, scientists saw that those solar eruptions were a near miss for the astronauts. However, just because those people were on the moon exploring does not mean they weren’t exposed to solar radiation from the explosions. Today the Apollo era is used as a  reminder of the threat of radiation towards astronauts. Even though the NASA space station gives the astronauts shields for radiation, they still have people watching the weather in space or as the article called them “space lifeguards”. They keep track and watch over spaces weather and look for changes in patterns of radiation etc. Besides normal solar eruption radiation, there’s a different kind of radiation out there, Cosmic rays. As the article states, Galactic Cosmic rays are way more powerful than normal solar eruption rays.  These Galactic Cosmic rays can travel a great distance and they are a threat or worry to long duration’s like trips to mars due to the fact that it takes 6-10 months each way. Galactic Cosmic rays are often formed by supernovas or the combustion of stars. Going to the Moon will help NASA collect necessary data and get the necessary tools and strategies to one day safely send  astronauts to Mars. The journey to Mars will take much longer than a trip to the Moon, and astronauts and the rest of the people on board will face much more radiation exposure. Unlike the Earth, Mars has no magnetic field to divert radiation.