What harm does cosmic radiation cause to astronauts? Radiation and space: what you need to know? (“Radiation” secrets that outer space hides)

Original taken from sokolov9686 in So were the Americans on the moon?...

Above 24,000 km above the Earth, radiation kills all living things

As already mentioned, as soon as the Americans began their space program, their scientist James Van Allen done enough important discovery. The first American artificial satellite they launched into orbit was much smaller than the Soviet one, but Van Allen thought of attaching a Geiger counter to it. Thus, what was expressed at the end of the 19th century was officially confirmed. The outstanding scientist Nikola Tesla hypothesized that the Earth is surrounded by a belt of intense radiation.

Photograph of Earth by astronaut William Anders during the Apollo 8 mission (NASA archives)

Tesla, however, was considered a great eccentric, and even a madman by academic science, so his hypotheses about the gigantic electric charge generated by the Sun were shelved for a long time, and the term “solar wind” did not cause anything but smiles. But thanks to Van Allen, Tesla's theories were revived. At the instigation of Van Allen and a number of other researchers, it was found that radiation belts in space begin at 800 km above the Earth's surface and extend up to 24,000 km. Since the radiation level there is more or less constant, the incoming radiation should be approximately equal to the outgoing radiation. Otherwise, it would either accumulate until it “baked” the Earth, as in an oven, or it would dry up. Regarding this, Van Allen wrote:

“Radiation belts can be compared to a leaky vessel that is constantly replenished from the Sun and leaks into the atmosphere. A large portion of solar particles overflows the vessel and splashes out, especially in the polar zones, leading to auroras, magnetic storms and other similar phenomena."

Radiation from the Van Allen belts depends on the solar wind. In addition, they appear to focus or concentrate this radiation within themselves. But since they can only concentrate in themselves what came directly from the Sun, one more question remains open: how much radiation is in the rest of the cosmos?

NASA | Heliophysics | The satellite has discovered a new radiation belt!

about Van Allen rings 28.30 minute radiation kills everything

There are a bunch of museums in Europe where regolith is displayed in fairly large pieces for free viewing. If you don’t believe me, the addresses of the museums are there, it’s easy to check.

For example, here is a stone in the Toulouse Cité de l"Espace:

Original taken from toomth V Why is NASA hiding “lunar soil” from the whole world?

It is believed that the Americans brought 378 kg of lunar soil and rocks from the Moon. At least that's what NASA says. This is almost four centners. It is clear that only astronauts could deliver such an amount of soil: no space stations can do this.

The rocks have been photographed, transcribed, and are regular extras in NASA's lunar films. In many of these films, the role of an expert and commentator is played by the Apollo 17 astronaut-geologist, Dr. Harrison Schmidt, who allegedly personally collected many of these stones on the Moon

It is logical to expect that with such lunar wealth, America will shock them, demonstrate them in every possible way, and even to someone, and will give away 30-50 kilograms of bounty to its main rival. Here, they say, research, make sure of our successes... But for some reason this just doesn’t work out. They gave us little soil. But “theirs” (again, according to NASA) received 45 kg of lunar soil and stones.

True, some particularly meticulous researchers conducted calculations based on relevant publications scientific centers and could not find convincing evidence that these 45 kg reached the laboratories of even Western scientists. Moreover, according to them, it turns out that currently no more than 100 g of American lunar soil wanders from laboratory to laboratory in the world, so that a researcher usually received half a gram of rock.

That is, NASA treats the lunar soil like a stingy knight treats gold: it stores the treasured centners in its basements in securely locked chests, giving out only measly grams to researchers. The USSR did not escape this fate either.

In our country at that time, the leading scientific organization for all studies of lunar soil was the Institute of Geochemistry of the USSR Academy of Sciences (now GEOKHI RAS). The head of the meteoritics department of this institute is Dr. M.A. Nazarov reports: “The Americans transferred to the USSR 29.4 grams (!) of lunar regolith (in other words, lunar dust) from all Apollo expeditions, and from our collection of samples “Luna-16, 20 and 24” were issued abroad 30.2 g." In fact, the Americans exchanged lunar dust with us, which can be delivered by any automatic station, although the astronauts should have brought weighty cobblestones, and the most interesting thing is to look at them.

What is NASA going to do with the rest of the lunar goodness? Oh, it's a "song".

“In the USA, a decision was made to maintain main mass delivered samples in complete integrity until new, more perfect ways their study,” write competent Soviet authors, from whose pens more than one book on lunar soil has been published.

“It is necessary to consume a minimum amount of material, leaving the majority of each individual sample untouched and uncontaminated for study by future generations of scientists,” explains NASA’s position, American specialist J. A. Wood.

Obviously, the American specialist believes that no one will fly to the Moon ever again - neither now nor in the future. And therefore we need to protect the centners of lunar soil better than our eyes. At the same time, modern scientists are humiliated: with their instruments they can examine every single atom in a substance, but they are denied trust - they are not mature enough. Or they didn’t come out with their snout. This persistent concern of NASA for future scientists is more likely to be a convenient excuse to hide the disappointing fact: in its storerooms there are neither lunar rocks nor quintals of lunar soil.

Another strange thing: after the completion of the “lunar” flights, NASA suddenly began to experience acute shortage money for their research.

Here is what one of the American researchers writes as of 1974: “A significant part of the samples will be stored as a reserve at the space flight center in Houston. Reducing funding will reduce the number of researchers and slow down the pace of research."

After spending $25 billion to deliver lunar samples, NASA suddenly discovered that there was no money left for their research...

The story of the exchange of Soviet and American soil is also interesting. Here is a message from April 14, 1972, the main official publication of the Soviet period, the Pravda newspaper:

“On April 13, representatives of NASA visited the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The transfer of lunar soil samples from those delivered to Earth by the Soviet automatic station “Luna-20” took place. At the same time, Soviet scientists were given a sample of lunar soil obtained by the crew of the American spacecraft Apollo 15. The exchange was made in accordance with an agreement between the USSR Academy of Sciences and NASA, signed in January 1971.”

Now we need to go through the deadlines.

July 1969 The Apollo 11 astronauts allegedly brought back 20 kg of lunar soil. The USSR does not give anything from this amount. At this point, the USSR does not yet have lunar soil.

September 1970 Our Luna-16 station delivers lunar soil to Earth, and from now on, Soviet scientists have something to offer in exchange. This puts NASA in a difficult position. But NASA expects that at the beginning of 1971 it will be able to automatically deliver its lunar soil to Earth, and with this in mind, an exchange agreement has already been concluded in January 1971. But the exchange itself does not take place for another 10 months. Apparently, something went wrong with automatic delivery in the USA. And the Americans are starting to drag their feet.

July 1971 In order goodwill The USSR unilaterally transfers 3 g of soil from Luna 16 to the United States, but receives nothing from the United States, although the exchange agreement was signed six months ago, and NASA supposedly already has 96 kg of lunar soil in its storerooms (from Apollo 11) , Apollo 12 and Apollo 14). Another 9 months pass.

April 1972 NASA is finally handing over a sample of lunar soil. It was allegedly delivered by the crew of the American spacecraft Apollo 15, although 8 months have already passed since the flight of Apollo 15 (July 1971). By this time, NASA supposedly already had 173 kg of lunar rocks (from Apollo 11, Apollo 12, Apollo 14 and Apollo 15) in its storerooms.

Soviet scientists receive from these riches a certain sample, the parameters of which are not reported in the Pravda newspaper. But thanks to Dr. M.A. Nazarov, we know that this sample consisted of regolith and did not exceed 29 g in mass.

It's very likely that until about July 1972, the United States had no real lunar soil at all. Apparently, somewhere in the first half of 1972, the Americans had the first grams of real lunar soil, which was delivered from the Moon in an automatic way. It was only then that NASA showed its readiness to make an exchange.

And in recent years The Americans' lunar soil (more precisely, what they pass off as lunar soil) began to disappear altogether. Summer 2002 huge amount samples of lunar substance - a safe weighing almost 3 centners - disappeared from the storerooms of the museum of the American NASA Space Center. Johnson in Houston.

Have you ever tried to steal a 300 kg safe from the space center? And don’t try: it’s too hard and dangerous work. But the thieves, on whose trail the police caught up surprisingly quickly, easily succeeded. Tiffany Fowler and Ted Roberts, who worked in the building during the period of their disappearance, were arrested by special agents of the FBI and NASA in a restaurant in Florida. Subsequently, the third accomplice, Shae Saur, was taken into custody in Houston, and then the fourth participant in the crime, Gordon Mac Water, who contributed to the transportation of stolen goods. The thieves intended to sell priceless evidence of NASA's lunar mission at a price of $1000-5000 per gram through the website of a mineralogy club in Antwerp (Holland). The value of the stolen goods, according to information from overseas, was more than $1 million.

A few years later - a new misfortune. In the United States, in the Virginia Beach area, two small sealed disk-shaped plastic boxes with samples of meteorite and lunar substances, judging by the markings on them, were stolen from a car by unknown thieves. Samples of this kind, Space reports, are transferred by NASA to special instructors “for training purposes.” Before receiving such samples, teachers undergo special training, during which they are taught how to properly handle this US national treasure. A " national treasure“, it turns out that it’s so easy to steal... Although it doesn’t look like a theft, but like a staged theft in order to get rid of evidence: no ground - no “inconvenient” questions.

Russian philosopher N.F. Fedorov (1828 - 1903) was the first to declare that people face the path to the exploration of all outer space as a strategic path for the development of mankind. He drew attention to the fact that only such a vast area is capable of attracting to itself all the spiritual energy, all the forces of humanity, which are wasted on mutual friction or spent on trifles. ... His idea of ​​​​reorienting the industrial and scientific potential of the military-industrial complex towards the research and development of space, including deep space, can radically reduce the military danger in the world. In order for this to happen in practice, it must first happen in the minds of the people who make global decisions in the first place. ...

Various difficulties arise on the path to space exploration. The main obstacle supposedly comes to the fore is the problem of radiation, here is a list of publications about this:

01/29/2004, newspaper “Trud”, “Irradiation in orbit”;
("And so sad statistics. Of our 98 cosmonauts who flew, eighteen are no longer alive, that is, every fifth. Of these, four died upon returning to Earth, Gagarin in a plane crash. Four died of cancer (Anatoly Levchenko was 47 years old, Vladimir Vasyutin - 50...).")

2. During the 254 days of the Curiosity rover’s flight to Mars, the radiation dose was more than 1 Sv, i.e. on average more than 4 mSv/day.

3. When astronauts fly around the Earth, the radiation dose ranges from 0.3 to 0.8 mSv/day ()

4. Since the discovery of radiation, its scientific study and practical mass development by industry, a huge amount has been accumulated, including the effects of radiation on the human body.
To connect an astronaut’s illness with exposure to space radiation, it is necessary to compare the incidence of astronauts who flew into space with the incidence of astronauts in the control group who had not been in space.

5. The space Internet encyclopedia www.astronaut.ru contains all the information on cosmonauts, astronauts and taikonauts who flew into space, as well as candidates selected for flights, but who did not fly into space.
Using these data, I compiled a summary table for the USSR/Russia with personal raids, dates of birth and death, causes of death, etc.
Summarized data is presented in the table:

6. There is also a lot of other data on the health of people who received increased doses of radiation exposure during the years of the creation of the nuclear industry in the USSR. Thus, “at PA Mayak”: “In 1950-1952. dose rates of external gamma (radiation near technological devices reached 15-180 mR/h. Annual doses of external radiation for 600 observed plant workers were 1.4-1.9 Sv/year. In some cases, the maximum annual doses of external radiation reached 7-8 Sv/year...
Of the 2,300 workers who suffered from chronic radiation sickness, after 40-50 years of observation, 1200 people remain alive with an average total dose of 2.6 Gy at an average age of 75 years. And out of 1100 deaths (average dose 3.1 Gy), in the structure of causes of death there is a noticeable increase in the proportion of malignant tumors, but also middle age was 65 years old."
“Problems of nuclear legacy and ways to solve them.” - Under general edition E.V. Evstratova, A.M. Agapova, N.P. Laverova, L.A. Bolshova, I.I. Linge. — 2012 — 356 p. - T1. (download)

7. “...extensive research involving approximately 100,000 survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 has shown that cancer is so far the only cause of increased mortality in this population group.
“However, at the same time, the development of cancer under the influence of radiation is not specific; it can also be caused by other natural or man-made factors (smoking, air, water, food pollution chemicals etc.). Radiation only increases the risk that exists without it. For example, Russian doctors believe that the contribution poor nutrition in development cancer diseases is 35%, and smoking - 31%. And the contribution of radiation, even with serious exposure, is no more than 10%."()


(source: “Liquidators. Radiological consequences of Chernobyl”, V. Ivanov, Moscow, 2010 (download)

8. "B" modern medicine radiotherapy is one of the three key methods treatment oncological diseases(the other two are chemotherapy and traditional surgery). At the same time, if we take into account the severity of side effects, radiation therapy much easier to tolerate. In especially severe cases, patients can receive a very high total dose - up to 6 grays (despite the fact that a dose of about 7-8 grays is lethal!). But even with such a huge dose, when the patient recovers, he often returns to the full life of a healthy person - even children born by former patients of radiation therapy clinics do not show any signs of congenital genetic abnormalities associated with radiation.
If you carefully consider and weigh the facts, then such a phenomenon as radiophobia - an irrational fear of radiation and everything connected with it - becomes completely illogical. Indeed: people believe that something terrible has happened when the dosimeter display shows at least two times the natural background - and at the same time they are happy to go to radon sources to improve their health, where the background can be ten times or more higher. Large doses of ionizing radiation cure patients with fatal diseases - and at the same time, a person who accidentally falls into the radiation field clearly attributes the deterioration in his health (if such a deterioration occurs at all) to the effects of radiation.” ("Radiation in Medicine", Yu.S. Koryakovsky, A.A. Akatov, Moscow, 2009)
Mortality statistics show that every third person in Europe dies from various types of cancer.
One of the main methods of treating malignant tumors is radiation therapy, which is necessary for approximately 70% of cancer patients, while in Russia only about 25% of those in need receive it. ()

Based on all the accumulated data, we can safely say: the problem of radiation during space exploration is greatly exaggerated and the road to space exploration is open for humanity.

P.S. The article was published in the professional magazine "Atomic Strategy", and before that it was evaluated by a number of specialists on the magazine's website. Here is the most informative comment received there: " What's happened cosmic radiation. This is Solar + Galactic radiation. The Solar one is many times more intense than the Galactic one, especially during solar activity. This is what determines the main dose. Its component and energy composition is protons (90%) and the rest is less significant (electr., gamma,...). The energy of the main fraction of protons is from keV to 80-90 MeV. (There is also a high-energy tail, but this is already a fraction of a percent.) The range of an 80 MeV proton is ~7 (g/cm^2) or about 2.5 cm of aluminum. Those. in the 2.5-3 cm thick wall of a spacecraft they are completely absorbed. Although protons generate neutrons in nuclear reactions on aluminum, the generation efficiency is low. Thus, the dose rate behind the ship's skin is quite high (since the flux-dose conversion coefficient for protons of the indicated energies is very large). And inside the level is quite acceptable, although higher than on Earth. A thoughtful and meticulous reader will immediately ask sarcastically - What about on the plane? After all, the dose rate there is much higher than on Earth. The answer is correct. The explanation is simple. High-energy solar and galactic protons and nuclei interact with atmospheric nuclei (reactions of multiple hadron production), causing a hadron cascade (shower). Therefore, the altitude distribution of the flux density of ionizing particles in the atmosphere has a maximum. It's the same with the electron-photon shower. Hadronic and e-g showers develop and are extinguished in the atmosphere. The thickness of the atmosphere is ~80-100 g/cm^2 (equivalent to 200 cm of concrete or 50 cm of iron.) And in the lining there is not enough substance to form a good shower. Hence the apparent paradox - the thicker the ship’s protection, the higher the dose rate inside. Therefore, thin protection is better than thick. But! 2-3 cm protection is required (reduces the dose from protons by an order of magnitude). Now for the numbers. On Mars, the Curiosity dosimeter accumulated about 1 Sv in almost a year. Cause enough high dose– the dosimeter did not have a thin protective screen, which was mentioned above. But still, is 1 Sv too much or too little? Is it fatal? A couple of my friends, liquidators, each gained about 100 R (of course in gamma, and in terms of hadrons - somewhere around 1 Sv). They feel better than you and me. Not disabled. Official approach regulatory documents. - With the permission of the territorial state sanitary inspection bodies, you can receive the planned dose of 0.2 Sv in a year. (That is, comparable to 1 Sv). And the predicted level of radiation that requires urgent intervention is 1 Gy for the whole body (this is the absorbed dose, approximately equal to 1 Sv in equivalent dose.) And for the lungs - 6 Gy. Those. for those who received a whole body dose of less than 1 Sv and no intervention is required. So, it's not so scary. But it’s better, of course, not to receive such doses. "

Who hasn’t dreamed of flying into space, even knowing what cosmic radiation is? At least fly to Earth orbit or to the Moon, or even better - further away, to some Orion. In fact, the human body is very little adapted to such travel. Even when flying into orbit, astronauts face many dangers that threaten their health and sometimes their lives. Everyone watched the cult TV series Star Trek. One of the wonderful characters there gave a very accurate description of the phenomenon of cosmic radiation. “It's danger and disease in darkness and silence,” said Leonard McCoy, aka Bony, aka Bonesetter. It is very difficult to be more precise. Cosmic radiation during travel will make a person tired, weak, sick, and suffering from depression.

Feelings in flight

The human body is not adapted to life in airless space, since evolution did not include such abilities in its arsenal. Books have been written about this, this issue is studied in detail by medicine, centers have been created all over the world to study the problems of medicine in space, in extreme conditions, at high altitudes. Of course, it’s funny to watch an astronaut smile on the screen while they float in the air various items. In fact, his expedition is much more serious and fraught with consequences than it seems to an ordinary inhabitant from Earth, and it is not only cosmic radiation that creates trouble.

At the request of journalists, astronauts, engineers, scientists, own experience those who experienced everything that happens to a person in space spoke about the sequence of various new sensations in an artificially created environment alien to the body. Literally ten seconds after the start of the flight, an unprepared person loses consciousness because the acceleration of the spacecraft increases, separating it from the launch complex. A person does not yet feel cosmic rays as strongly as in outer space - the radiation is absorbed by the atmosphere of our planet.

Major troubles

But there are also enough overloads: a person becomes four times heavier than his own weight, he is literally pressed into a chair, it is difficult to even move his arm. Everyone has seen these special chairs, for example, in spacecraft"Union". But not everyone understood why the astronaut had such a strange pose. However, it is necessary because overloads send almost all the blood in the body down to the legs, and the brain is left without blood supply, which is why fainting occurs. But a chair invented in the Soviet Union helps to avoid at least this trouble: the position with raised legs forces the blood to supply oxygen to all parts of the brain.

Ten minutes after the start of the flight, the lack of gravity will cause a person to almost lose their sense of balance, orientation and coordination in space; a person may not even be able to track moving objects. He feels nauseous and vomits. Cosmic rays can cause the same thing - the radiation here is already much stronger, and if there is a plasma ejection into the sun, the threat to the lives of astronauts in orbit is real, even airline passengers can suffer during a flight to high altitude. Vision changes, swelling and changes occur in the retina of the eyes, and the eyeball becomes deformed. A person becomes weak and cannot complete the tasks that are assigned to him.

Riddles

However, from time to time people feel high cosmic radiation on Earth, and for this they do not necessarily have to travel into outer space. Our planet is constantly bombarded by rays of cosmic origin, and scientists suggest that our atmosphere does not always provide sufficient protection. There are many theories that give these energetic particles a power that greatly limits the chances of planets having life on them. In many ways, the nature of these cosmic rays is still an insoluble mystery for our scientists.

Subatomic charged particles in space move almost at the speed of light, they have already been recorded several times on satellites, and even on These nuclei chemical elements, protons, electrons, photons and neutrinos. The presence of heavy and superheavy particles in the attack of cosmic radiation cannot be ruled out either. If they could be discovered, a number of contradictions in cosmological and astronomical observations would be resolved.

Atmosphere

What protects us from cosmic radiation? Only our atmosphere. Cosmic rays, threatening the death of all living things, collide in it and generate streams of other particles - harmless, including muons, much heavier relatives of electrons. Potential danger still exists, since some particles reach the surface of the Earth and penetrate many tens of meters into its interior. The level of radiation that any planet receives indicates its suitability or unsuitability for life. The high radiation that cosmic rays carry with them is much higher than the radiation from own star, because the energy of protons and photons, for example, of our Sun, is lower.

And with high life impossible. On Earth this dose is controlled by force magnetic field planet and the thickness of the atmosphere, they significantly reduce the danger of cosmic radiation. For example, there could well be life on Mars, but the atmosphere there is negligible, there is no magnetic field of its own, and therefore there is no protection from cosmic rays that penetrate the entire space. The level of radiation on Mars is enormous. And the influence of cosmic radiation on the planet’s biosphere is such that all life on it dies.

What's more important?

We are lucky, we have both a thick atmosphere enveloping the Earth and our own fairly powerful magnetic field that absorbs harmful particles that reach the earth’s crust. I wonder whose protection for the planet works more actively - the atmosphere or the magnetic field? Researchers are experimenting by creating models of planets, either providing them with a magnetic field or not. And the magnetic field itself differs in strength between these models of planets. Previously, scientists were sure that it was the main protection against cosmic radiation, since they controlled its level on the surface. However, it was discovered that the amount of radiation is determined to a greater extent by the thickness of the atmosphere that covers the planet.

If the magnetic field on Earth is “turned off,” the radiation dose will only double. This is a lot, but even for us it will have a rather insignificant effect. And if you leave the magnetic field and remove the atmosphere to one tenth of its total amount, then the dose will increase deadly - by two orders of magnitude. Terrible cosmic radiation will kill everything and everyone on Earth. Our Sun is a yellow dwarf star, and it is around them that the planets are considered the main contenders for habitability. These stars are relatively dim, there are many of them, about eighty percent of the total number of stars in our Universe.

Space and evolution

Theorists have calculated that such planets orbiting yellow dwarfs, which are in zones suitable for life, have much weaker magnetic fields. This is especially true for the so-called super-Earths - large rocky planets with a mass ten times greater than our Earth. Astrobiologists were confident that weak magnetic fields significantly reduced the chances of habitability. And now new discoveries suggest that this is not as large-scale a problem as people used to think. The main thing would be the atmosphere.

Scientists are comprehensively studying the effect of increasing radiation on existing living organisms - animals, as well as on a variety of plants. Radiation-related research involves exposing them to radiation in varying degrees, from small to extreme, and then determine whether they will survive and how differently they will feel if they survive. Microorganisms affected by gradually increasing radiation may show us how evolution occurred on Earth. It was cosmic rays and their high radiation that once forced the future man to get off the palm tree and study space. And humanity will never return to the trees again.

Cosmic radiation 2017

At the beginning of September 2017, our entire planet was greatly alarmed. The sun suddenly ejected tons of solar material after the merger of two large groups dark spots. And this emission was accompanied by X-class flares, which forced the planet’s magnetic field to literally wear out. A large magnetic storm followed, causing illness in many people, as well as extremely rare, almost unprecedented natural phenomena on Earth. For example, near Moscow and Novosibirsk, powerful images of the northern lights were recorded that had never been seen in these latitudes. However, the beauty of such phenomena did not obscure the consequences of a deadly solar flare that permeated the planet with cosmic radiation, which turned out to be truly dangerous.

Its power was close to the maximum, X-9.3, where the letter is the class (extremely large flash), and the number is the flash strength (out of ten possible). Along with this release, there was a threat of failure of space communication systems and all equipment on board. The astronauts were forced to wait out this flow of terrible cosmic radiation carried by cosmic rays in a special shelter. The quality of communications during these two days deteriorated significantly in both Europe and America, precisely where the flow of charged particles from space was directed. About a day before the particles reached the Earth's surface, a warning was issued about cosmic radiation, which sounded on every continent and in every country.

Power of the Sun

The energy emitted by our star into the surrounding space is truly enormous. Within a few minutes, many billions of megatons, if calculated in TNT equivalent, fly into space. Humanity will be able to generate so much energy at current rates only in a million years. Just a fifth of the total energy emitted by the Sun per second. And this is our small and not too hot dwarf! If you just imagine how much destructive energy other sources of cosmic radiation produce, next to which our Sun will seem like an almost invisible grain of sand, your head will spin. What a blessing that we have a good magnetic field and an excellent atmosphere that prevent us from dying!

People are exposed to such danger every day, since radioactive radiation in space never runs out. It is from there that most of the radiation comes to us - from black holes and from clusters of stars. It is capable of killing with a large dose of radiation, and with a small dose it can turn us into mutants. However, we must also remember that evolution on Earth occurred thanks to such flows; radiation changed the structure of DNA to the state that we see today. If we go through this “medicine”, that is, if the radiation emitted by stars exceeds permissible levels, the processes will be irreversible. After all, if creatures mutate, they will not return to their original state; there is no reverse effect here. Therefore, we will never again see those living organisms that were present in the newborn life on Earth. Any organism tries to adapt to changes occurring in the environment. Either he dies or he adapts. But there is no turning back.

ISS and solar flare

When the Sun sent us its greeting with a stream of charged particles, the ISS was just passing between the Earth and the star. The high-energy protons released during the explosion created a completely undesirable background radiation within the station. These particles penetrate through absolutely any spacecraft. Nevertheless, space technology this radiation was spared as the impact was powerful but too short to incapacitate her. However, the crew hid all this time in a special shelter, because the human body is much more vulnerable modern technology. There was not just one flare, they came in a whole series, and it all began on September 4, 2017, in order to shake the cosmos with an extreme emission on September 6. Over the past twelve years, a stronger flow has not yet been observed on Earth. The cloud of plasma that was ejected by the Sun overtook the Earth much earlier than planned, which means that the speed and power of the flow exceeded the expected one and a half times. Accordingly, the impact on the Earth was much stronger than expected. The cloud was twelve hours ahead of all the calculations of our scientists, and accordingly more disturbed the planet’s magnetic field.

The power of the magnetic storm turned out to be four out of five possible, that is, ten times more than expected. In Canada, auroras were also observed even in mid-latitudes, as in Russia. A planetary magnetic storm occurred on Earth. You can imagine what was going on there in space! Radiation is the most significant danger of all existing there. Protection from it is needed immediately, as soon as the spacecraft leaves the upper layers of the atmosphere and leaves magnetic fields far below. Streams of uncharged and charged particles - radiation - constantly permeate space. The same conditions await us on any planet in the solar system: there is no magnetic field or atmosphere on our planets.

Types of radiation

In space it is considered the most dangerous ionizing radiation. These are gamma radiation and X-rays from the Sun, these are particles flying after chromospheric solar flares, these are extragalactic, galactic and solar cosmic rays, solar wind, protons and electrons of radiation belts, alpha particles and neutrons. There is also non-ionizing radiation - this is ultraviolet and infrared radiation from the Sun, this electromagnetic radiation And visible light. There is no great danger in them. We are protected by the atmosphere, and the astronaut is protected by a space suit and the skin of the ship.

Ionizing radiation causes irreparable harm. This is a harmful effect on all life processes that occur in human body. When a high-energy particle or photon passes through a substance in its path, it forms a pair of charged particles called an ion as a result of interaction with this substance. This affects even nonliving matter, and living matter reacts most violently, since the organization of highly specialized cells requires renewal, and this process occurs dynamically as long as the organism is alive. And the higher the level evolutionary development body, the more irreversible the radiation damage becomes.

Radiation protection

Scientists are looking for such tools in a variety of areas modern science, including in pharmacology. So far no drug effective results does not work, and people exposed to radiation continue to die. Experiments are carried out on animals both on earth and in space. The only thing that became clear was that any drug should be taken by a person before the start of irradiation, and not after.

And if we take into account that all such drugs are toxic, then we can assume that the fight against the effects of radiation has not yet led to a single victory. Even if pharmacological agents taken on time, they provide protection only against gamma radiation and x-rays, but do not protect against ionizing radiation from protons, alpha particles and fast neutrons.