ESA Will Study the Effects of Space Radiation Exposure

Officials with the European Space Agency (ESA) say that they are very interested in learning more about the effects of radiation exposure on human space flyers, and so they are launching an Announcement of Opportunity for groups interested in researching this phenomenon.

But the space agency wants to study the effects of intense cosmic radiation inside particle accelerators, which are huge machines capable of producing the necessary conditions to form the stuff.

The biological effects of space radiation have been investigated with support from ESA since 2008. Accelerators were used for those researches as well.

Now, scientists in Member States are invited to propose new experiments to be conducted in this field. The work will take place in Darmstadt, Germany, at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung.

Letter of intent for the proposals is due until November 12, 2010, while the proposals themselves need to be submitted before January 17, 2011.

This line of research is critical if we want to put astronauts on Mars. The Red Planet does not have a magnetosphere, a protective layer of the type that shields Earth from the effects of cosmic radiation.

Furthermore, any future explorations crew would need to spend up to a year and a half flying to and from the Red Planet, during which time their spacecraft will be subjected to the effects of these radiation.

At this point, only concerns about the human element of a Mars-bound mission and cosmic radiation exist as obstacles in actually sending a crew to our neighboring planet.

The technology, expertise and funds to develop such a mission already exist. But the remaining unknowns bear too much significance on the outcome of the flight to be ignored.

As we explore space closer to home, on the Moon or on the International Space Station (ISS), the Earth's defenses are protecting us against too much harm from radiation.

This has been evidenced by the fact that little to no related side-effects have been discovered in astronauts returning from six-month stays aboard the orbital facility.

But there is no way of knowing how prolonged space exposure would affect explorers spending nearly two years outside of the magnetosphere.

ESA hopes that the new batches of study will provide at least some insight into these phenomena.

Coupled with the results of the ongoing Mars500 experiments, the new data will paint a clearer picture of the risks associated with manned space exploration.