NASA’s new cosmic ray simulator is one small step toward the moon and Mars

The Milky Way is a wild west of high-energy, subatomic particles that flash through the galaxy at a speed close to the speed of light. Because these galactic cosmic rays move around our corner of space, sometimes too smash into the earth’s atmosphere and produce a shower of secondary particles. Thanks mainly to the atmosphere (and Earth’s magnetic fields), they are not a major problem for human health on the ground. But in space it is a different story.

In space, exposure to GCRs or space radiation can damage DNA, destroy the brain, and interfere with the normal biological function of cells. However, little is known about the effects of cosmic rays on astronauts. If we ever want to travel further into the cosmos or spend months on the moon or Mars, we have to find out how our bodies could be affected by the rays.

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Of course, NASA built a machine that fires rays of high-energy particles to test exactly how space radiation could affect us. We now call it: This is a cosmic ray gun – It’s just not the type of weapon that does obvious damage right away.

In a new study published in the open access journal PLoS Biology On Tuesday, scientists from NASA’s Space Radiation Laboratory in Brookhaven, New York, explained the development and use of the first ground-based “galactic cosmic ray simulator”, which can be used to more closely simulate the actual radiation environment in space.

Cosmic radiation consists of a mixture of energetic particles such as protons, helium ions and heavier ions such as carbon and iron. In the past, scientists were able to fire rays of energetic particles at each other, but only one at a time. However, because particle mixing in GCRs interacts with spacecraft and the human body in different ways, scientists are interested in studying how they all work together.

In reality, the simulator is less a “gun” than a “particle accelerator”. The simulator uses Brookhaven’s booster synchotron, which can shoot and accelerate particles to extremely high energies that the laboratory can use. The laboratory can then control how the GCR rays are delivered to a target area.

“With well-established environmental models of space, radiation physics and the geometry of the human body, we have
estimated the number of particles and their energies that critical body organs such as the brain, lungs and liver will reach, “says Lisa Simonsen, space radiation researcher at the NSRL and first author of the study.

Thanks to new technologies such as beam switching, the simulator can quickly switch between different beam combinations and more closely mimic the space environment. The rays, which can be 60 x 60 square centimeters, can be focused on a target area to deliver a dose of space radiation, as the researchers believe.

“With the rapid switching technology, all relevant particle types and energies can be covered in a single experiment,” says Simonsen.

The first experiments conducted by NASA scientists began in 2018 and investigated acute and chronic radiation doses in mice. The animals can be brought into their cages and are given a dose of space radiation here on Earth. The results of these early experiments have yet to be published, but the authors suggest that the first run of the cosmic ray simulator will allow them to plan future operations. And not just for biological studies. The GCR simulator could focus on different materials to understand how they might behave when shielding spacecraft.

“We are very pleased that our first published results will be released sometime next year to understand the effects of mixed ions, dose rate effects and the effectiveness of countermeasures in a simulated space environment,” said Simonsen.

We already have an idea of ​​how the human body changes when it leaves the earth. Before we can travel deeper between the stars, we need to know the possible evil effects that we can experience on long-distance trips. The GCR simulator is a huge leap in technology that will help us to enter more distant worlds.