Spaceflight radiation carcinogenesis Spaceflight radiation carcinogenesis Astronauts are exposed to approximately 50-2,000 millisieverts (mSv) while on six-month-duration missions to the International Space Station (ISS), the Moon and beyond. The risk of cancer caused by ionizing radiation is well documented at radiation doses beginning at 50 mSv and above. Related radiological effect studies have shown that survivors of the atomic bomb explosions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nuclear reactor workers and patients who have undergone therapeutic radiation treatments have received low-linear energy transfer (LET) radiation (x-rays and gamma rays) doses in the same 50-2000 mSv range. While in space, astronauts are exposed to radiation which
Lazarus effect therefore inactive. Trapping of electrons and holes generated by particles traversing the detector is then prevented and little or no signal is lost. The understanding of this has been detailed in a number of papers. Thanks to the Lazarus effect, silicon detectors have been proven to be able survive radiation doses in excess of 90 GRad and they have been proposed for future high luminosity experiments. Lazarus effect The Lazarus effect refers to semiconductor detectors; when these are used in harsh radiation environments, defects begin to appear in the semiconductor crystal lattice as atoms become displaced because of the interaction