Dummy Astronaut to Be Subjected to Simulated Solar Flare

Despite recent criticism and cost overrun concerns, NASA is still considering placing a man on the Moon and Mars in the near future, but, in order for it to be able to do that, it has to first know and defeat the dangers that lie ahead. The most severe issue confronting a crew leaving the Earth's magnetosphere is that of solar emissions and cosmic radiation, which can wreak havoc in electronic systems and expose the human body to massive doses of radiation. For the purpose of better understanding how much radiation a human can take, the space agency has devised a mannequin, made entirely of bones, human blood cells, sensors, and fake skin, which they plan to blast with protons.

 

Though it may seem like a bit of an overkill, the dummy will actually play a very important part in NASA's future planning methods for missions that leave the Earth's relatively-safe orbit. The mannequin is a real-life replica of the human torso, featuring artificial skin and organs, real human blood cells, as well as bones and hundreds of radiation-specific sensors, able to detect the slightest increase in their levels over short periods of time. The Phantom Torso will simulate the exact events that could take place when a ship heading for Mars gets struck by a solar flare.

 

"We put blood cells in small tubes in the stomach and in some places in the bone marrow. One of the questions we have is whether the less shielded parts of the bone marrow will be [much harder hit],” Space quotes Francis Cucinotta as saying. The expert is the chief scientist for the Radiation Program at the Johnson Space Center, in Houston. “The biological effects are very sensitive to the dose rate. A dose of radiation delivered over a short amount of time is two to three times more damaging than the same dose over a few days.”

 

Health experts say that large amounts of radiation hitting the human body at once could have devastating effects on organs such as the liver and the spleen, which deal in detoxifying the body, as well as on the bone marrow. They add that cells around the body, but especially in the bone marrow and the blood, could easily mutate and become cancers, which could spread out of control in a relatively-short amount of time. The purpose of the experiment is to assess exactly how long it takes for the cells to turn into cancer, or if that happens at all. The dummy will be hit with a high-energy proton beam.