A Radiation safety item from WHAT'S NEW

[Susan Gawarecki <loc@ICX.NET>]

A Radiation safety item from WHAT'S NEW   

By Robert L. Park   Friday, 07 Dec 01   Washington, DC



<< 2. SPACE TRAVEL: THERE ARE A FEW HEALTH PROBLEMS TO DEAL WITH. 

NASA is making plans for a human mission to Mars in 2014 that

would take 30 months. At the request of NASA, a committee of the

Institute of Health has examined the health issues surrounding

long-duration space missions outside Earth's magnetosphere ("Safe

Passage," National Academy Press, Washington, DC 2001, $80).  The

greatest risk is radiation exposure.  There are no data on

effects of the high-Z, high-energy particles that flood space and

no suitable experimental facilities on Earth.  Nor is there any

way to predict solar outbursts with much higher radiation levels. 

Loss of bone density in zero gravity is so severe and NASA's

"countermeasures" so marginally effective, that a mission to Mars

with humans is unlikely to be undertaken unless a biological

solution is found.  Most surprising was the importance the report

gives to the risk of psychological and social stress.



THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY and THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND

Opinions are the author's and are not necessarily shared by the

American Physical Society or the University, but they should be.>>

-- 

.....................................................

Susan L. Gawarecki, Ph.D., Executive Director

Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee

Please visit our Web site - http://www.local-oversight.org

.....................................................

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