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Radiation Hazards to Crews
of Interplanetary Missions

Biological Issues and Research Strategies


Preface


The study that is the subject of this report was initiated as a result of a series of discussions between the leaders of NASA's Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences and Applications (OLMSA), NASA's Life and Biomedical Sciences Division (LBSAD), and the Space Studies Board's Committee on Space Biology and Medicine (CSBM). In order to address concerns within NASA and CSBM regarding the many uncertainties in the understanding of radiation hazards to the crew of long-duration missions in space, CSBM formed an expert task group on radiation biology and physics whose members had no direct involvement with NASA's radiation programs. A CSBM member with the appropriate expertise was appointed to lead the group.

The Task Group on the Biological Effects of Space Radiation (TGBESR) was asked to review current knowledge on the effects of long-term exposure to radiation in a space environment and to consider NASA radiation shielding requirements for orbital and interplanetary spacecraft. The task group was charged with assessing the adequacy of NASA planning for the protection of humans from radiation in those environments and with making recommendations regarding needed research and/or new shielding requirements. Where feasible, the task group would also provide NASA with radiation safety guidelines.

Early in the study the task group was informed by NASA that plans for the international space station were at such an advanced stage that any recommendations affecting shielding of orbital craft could not be implemented by the agency. The task group therefore decided to concentrate on the radiation hazards of interplanetary missions. Further, at the urging of NASA, the task group has attempted to provide reasonable estimates of time lines for completing the radiation research it has recommended.

Although the recommendations of the task group are published here as a separate and independent report of TGBESR, it is the intent of CSBM that this report will also form the basis of a section in a space life sciences strategy report being prepared by CSBM for publication at a later date.

During the course of this study the task group was briefed extensively by representatives of OLMSA and LBSAD regarding NASA's planning for deep-space missions and projections for radiation shielding. The task group also received in-depth technical briefings on the status of NASA's radiation research and the agency's current understanding of radiation hazards, and it consulted a wide range of technical documentation. When verification or additional details of prior research were needed, task group members made direct queries to the pertinent investigators in the radiation research community.

A number of individuals who assisted the task group by supplying information deserve special thanks for their contributions: Harry Holloway, Frank Sulzman, and Walter Schimmerling of NASA headquarters; John Wilson of NASA Langley Research Center; Amy Kronenberg of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; and Gregory Nelson of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.


CSBM




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