The priority is protect the health of astronauts. They wanted to know if it is possible to detect the damage that radiation can cause to astronauts. In addition, they also wanted to check if there were differences depending on sex, age and other factors.
The danger of radiation exposure
Space radiation is born from three things: particles trapped in our planet’s magnetic field, particles shot into space during solar flares and galactic cosmic rays. The latter occur outside the Solar System.
Radiation exposure can cause very serious illnesses such as cancer or cardiovascular problems. Luckily, on our planet we are protected from it thanks to both the Earth’s magnetic field and the atmosphere.
The NASA you are doing research on possible medical countermeasures, such as the use of pharmaceuticals or early disease detection technology, to help mitigate the consequences from exposure to radiation from space.
However, for missions beyond the orbit of our planet the same level of protection cannot be provided against armor or limit the exposure time of the mission.
That is why NASA is looking for ways to prepare astronauts so that they can do longer missions safely.
As people age, their chromosomes are altered. This can occur naturally or by exposure to the environment. Chromosomes have basic components of our DNA and modifying them can be very harmful to health.
A study was done to check the effects of radiation
The International Space Station made a study with 43 astronauts to see if they had been affected by radiation before and after a mission. To do this, a blood sample was taken before the mission and their blood cells were checked to assess their official chromosomal status and see how it might change in the future.
After taking this, the samples were intentionally exposed gamma rays on Earth to measure how easily your cells accumulated chromosome changes.
Therefore, once the astronauts returned from finishing their mission in space, a new blood sample was taken again in order to check if there were alterations in the chromosomes.
The samples began to be compared before and after the mission and several things were discovered.
People with more inherent sensitivity were more likely to undergo changes on chromosomes than those with low sensitivity. On the other hand, the people who had more changes in the chromosomes with the tests that were done before the flight were the most susceptible to undergo modifications in them.
Furthermore, they also believe that if you have to do missions to space they are best done by older people as young people are more susceptible to diseases in the long run from radiation exposure than older people, even though both are sensitive to radiation. This is because young people have a longer time to live and may live long enough to develop cancer or another disease.
Therefore, it is important to develop a technology that allows knowing the radiation levels when doing a space mission, since this is vital for the astronaut health.