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Potential health effects of space radiation
| Content Provider | NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) |
|---|---|
| Author | Craise, Laurie M. Yang, Chui-Hsu |
| Copyright Year | 1993 |
| Description | Crewmembers on missions to the Moon or Mars will be exposed to radiation belts, galactic cosmic rays, and possibly solar particle events. The potential health hazards due to these space radiations must be considered carefully to ensure the success of space exploration. Because there is no human radioepidemiological data for acute and late effects of high-LET (Linear-Energy-Transfer) radiation, the biological risks of energetic charged particles have to be estimated from experimental results on animals and cultured cells. Experimental data obtained to date indicate that charged particle radiation can be much more effective than photons in causing chromosome aberrations, cell killing, mutation, and tumor induction. The relative biological effectiveness (RBE) varies with biological endpoints and depends on the LET of heavy ions. Most lesions induced by low-LET radiation can be repaired in mammalian cells. Energetic heavy ions, however, can produce large complex DNA damages, which may lead to large deletions and are irreparable. For high-LET radiation, therefore, there are less or no dose rate effects. Physical shielding may not be effective in minimizing the biological effects on energetic heavy ions, since fragments of the primary particles can be effective in causing biological effects. At present the uncertainty of biological effects of heavy particles is still very large. With further understanding of the biological effects of space radiation, the career doses can be kept at acceptable levels so that the space radiation environment need not be a barrier to the exploitation of the promise of space. |
| File Size | 363585 |
| Page Count | 6 |
| File Format | |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://archive.org/details/NASA_NTRS_Archive_19940007086 |
| Archival Resource Key | ark:/13960/t6450m17p |
| Language | English |
| Publisher Date | 1993-02-01 |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Subject Keyword | Aerospace Medicine Radiation Effects Mutations Heavy Ions Relative Biological Effectiveness Rbe Radiation Hazards Galactic Cosmic Rays Health Physics Mammals Radiation Dosage Energetic Particles Spacecrews Cells Biology Radiation Belts Deoxyribonucleic Acid Chromosomes Radiation Damage Tumors Ntrs Nasa Technical Reports Server (ntrs) Nasa Technical Reports Server Aerodynamics Aircraft Aerospace Engineering Aerospace Aeronautic Space Science |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
