According to a new study, astronauts travelling to Mars are at an increased risk of developing cancer as they are exposed to harmful radiation despite using shielding techniques.
A group of researchers have conducted a study wherein they found that astronauts that travel to Mars are at an increased risk of developing cancer as they are exposed to an increased amount of harmful radiation despite of using shielding techniques. For the study, researchers analyzed how much radiation a piece of science hardware on the Mars rover Curiosity was exposed to over the 253-day journey from Earth to Mars.
"In space, it's between a 100 and 1,000 times higher dose rate [of radiation] than on Earth," Southwest Research Institute scientist Cary Zeitlin told SPACE.com. "It's highly uncertain what the health risk is from these exposures."
An instrument named Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) was used to measure the radiation while Curiosity was in flight. The instrument was activated ten days after Curiosity was launched till three weeks before its landing.
Researchers found that astronomers traveling to Mars are exposed to two forms of cosmic radiations that don't pose a serious risk on Earth. However, NASA scientists believe that radiation exposure over the course of a mission will increase an astronaut's risk of developing fatal cancer over his or her lifetime by at least 3 percent.
"The rover itself during the trip was surrounded by the equipment used for the entry, descent and landing," Zeitlin said. "RAD was very unevenly shielded. About half was lightly shielded. The heat shield below didn't really provide very much in the way of shielding. But above, there was quite a bit, and on a human inhabited vehicle, you would want it much more uniform."
