Artemis astronauts to help clarify health risks of space travel

Shielded from the freezing void outside their spacecraft, the Artemis II astronauts still face one of deep space travel’s most persistent threats: radiation. NASA is now waiting closely for data that could reveal how much exposure the crew endured and what it means for future missions.

The four astronauts traveled farther into space than any humans before them, venturing more than 1,000 times farther from Earth than the International Space Station.

In low Earth orbit, the planet’s magnetosphere helps blunt some of the radioactive cosmic rays and solar particles that reach the ISS. Around the Moon, astronauts do not have that same buffer.

Understanding radiation’s effects is a central priority for NASA as it works toward establishing a Moon base and eventually sending crews on the much longer journey to Mars.

NASA also packed the capsule with advanced computer chips designed to mimic certain physiological functions, including those of a human organ.

Mission planners decided to model bone marrow, which creates blood cells and is among the tissues “most quickly affected by radiation and other stressors,” according to NASA Human Research Program chief scientist Steven Platts.

Mr Platts said his team hopes the full set of data will sharpen its understanding of how conditions in low Earth orbit differ from those in deep space.

“It will be good research information for us to see the level of radiation, but also the type of radiation,” he said.

“Our prediction is that we’ll see a lot more galactic cosmic radiation… which is from supernovas and is everywhere,” versus radiation coming from the Sun, he said.

Mental health

Mr Platts said radiation is often linked in the public mind to cancer, but its effects can also reach the central nervous system and the circulatory system.

“It can lead to inflammation in the brain, and that’s one of the things that can increase the risk of Parkinson’s disease,” he said.

Because the Artemis II astronauts spent only 10 days in space, radiation does not rank as a major immediate concern. But that risk could climb sharply during longer stays on the Moon.

Researchers carried out extensive health studies on the Apollo astronauts, but the tools available today are far more advanced than those from 50 years ago, said Bruce Betts, chief scientist at the Planetary Society, a space advocacy group.

“There will be a lot of information on the medical side of things,” he said.

Another major area of concern is the psychological strain of living for extended periods on the Moon or Mars.

Mr Platts said mental health may prove the biggest hazard on such missions, given the greater distance from home and the cramped quarters astronauts would have to share.

He said the contrast between life aboard the ISS and inside the much smaller Orion capsule is like moving from a “six-bedroom house, like a mansion… to a camper van”.