Author Topic: Increased Cancer Mortality Risk for NASA's ISS Astronauts  (Read 5466 times)

Offline rdale

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    This viewgraph presentation reviews the radiation exposures and risks associated with long-term spaceflight on the International Space Station. NASA's risk model of cancer mortality is also presented.

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20090026571_2009026812.pdf

Offline Norm Hartnett

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Re: Increased Cancer Mortality Risk for NASA's ISS Astronauts
« Reply #1 on: 08/13/2009 04:03 am »
Wish this had included projected risks beyond LEO.

Very well presented though.
“You can’t take a traditional approach and expect anything but the traditional results, which has been broken budgets and not fielding any flight hardware.” Mike Gold - Apollo, STS, CxP; those that don't learn from history are condemned to repeat it: SLS.

Offline Danderman

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Re: Increased Cancer Mortality Risk for NASA's ISS Astronauts
« Reply #2 on: 08/13/2009 03:29 pm »
My advice for future space stations and interplanetary missions:

Store water (both fresh and used) in tanks located around the crew cabin, ie outside the crew pressurized volume. Water is really good at stopping radiation.

Offline Analyst

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Re: Increased Cancer Mortality Risk for NASA's ISS Astronauts
« Reply #3 on: 08/13/2009 03:32 pm »
And really heavy.

Analyst

Offline Danderman

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Re: Increased Cancer Mortality Risk for NASA's ISS Astronauts
« Reply #4 on: 08/13/2009 03:46 pm »
And really heavy.

Analyst

Water storage is a necessary function for any long term spacecraft. I am simply suggesting that this storage function be accommodated by external, radially located tanks, not randomly located inside the station, as is the case with ISS.

Offline robertross

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Re: Increased Cancer Mortality Risk for NASA's ISS Astronauts
« Reply #5 on: 08/13/2009 08:50 pm »
My advice for future space stations and interplanetary missions:

Store water (both fresh and used) in tanks located around the crew cabin, ie outside the crew pressurized volume. Water is really good at stopping radiation.

Yup, I agree with this one. A side-benefit to this: if your closed-loop water processing system gives way, you still have a clean water supply to draw on. Just fill the tanks with treated urine afterwards from a holding tank.

Offline Robotbeat

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Re: Increased Cancer Mortality Risk for NASA's ISS Astronauts
« Reply #6 on: 08/17/2009 09:01 pm »
Yeah, radiation shielding doesn't need to be wasted mass. It can be extra mission-abort fuel, extra food/water, spare parts, or any equipment (like computers or batteries) that don't need to be in any special place. A perfect thing to use it for is for the fuel needed to park in LEO, since you only burn this fuel when you are in (or near) LEO at the end of a mission. This makes a lot of sense if you want to reuse most of your spacecraft.
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Offline Suzy

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Re: Increased Cancer Mortality Risk for NASA's ISS Astronauts
« Reply #7 on: 08/18/2009 01:47 am »
On another related health issue, I came across this BBC article, "Cosmic rays 'harm pilots' sight' " - I guess this would apply to astronauts, too?

Offline kch

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Re: Increased Cancer Mortality Risk for NASA's ISS Astronauts
« Reply #8 on: 08/18/2009 02:08 am »
On another related health issue, I came across this BBC article, "Cosmic rays 'harm pilots' sight' " - I guess this would apply to astronauts, too?

That's how I read it:

Quote
Cosmic rays - very energetic particles and radiation which bombard the Earth from outer space - have already been linked to cataracts among astronauts.

Offline kkattula

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Re: Increased Cancer Mortality Risk for NASA's ISS Astronauts
« Reply #9 on: 08/18/2009 03:29 am »
That's it.  We should stop all spaceflight immediately.  Let them take up smoking instead.  It'll be cheaper.

Offline simon-th

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Re: Increased Cancer Mortality Risk for NASA's ISS Astronauts
« Reply #10 on: 08/18/2009 08:03 am »

Store water (both fresh and used) in tanks located around the crew cabin, ie outside the crew pressurized volume. Water is really good at stopping radiation.

We should not make the error to just talk about "radiation" in general when it comes to in-deep space travel. Different materials are good for shielding different radiation events. Water or polyethylene are good to shield from normal space radiation (galactic cosmic radiation), because hydrogen produces low secondary radiation - in contrast to aluminum shielding.

However, for Solar flares, water shielding of a spacecraft will be insufficient absent a very thick wall of water. Thick aluminum shelters are better and much more realistic to protect crew from these events.

But in any event, for passive shielding against galactic cosmic radiation you always run into mass constraints for any material you use. If you were to use e.g. a 50cm thick aluminum shell around your interplanetary spacecraft hab, weighing easily over 150-200mt alone (for a ISS module sized hab), you still ended up with a yearly radiation dose much higher than on Earth which from NASA safety levels probably couldn't be tolerated. For water based shielding you even need thicker shielding (although you get lower secondary radiation), but you'll end up with 500-1000mt of water required... which obviously doesn't make sense.

Right now, the best approach forward is probably passive thick aluminum shielding for solar events (small storm shelters in the spacecraft) combined with active magnetic shielding with superconducting high-temperature devices with a large radius coil. The larger the coil, the lower the energy required to provide effective magnetic protection from galactic cosmic radiation.

In addition, any Mars mission will probably require astronauts to add antioxidants like high dosages of Vitamin C, E or selenium to their diet and use drugs such as tempol or amifostine to mitigate the effects of space radiation on the body. Antioxidant skin creams  could also be used.

Here is a short 2-page overview for anyone who is interested in active radiation shielding: www.physicamedica.com/VOLXVII_S1/17-TOWNSEND.pdf
« Last Edit: 08/18/2009 08:24 am by simon-th »

Offline Robotbeat

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Re: Increased Cancer Mortality Risk for NASA's ISS Astronauts
« Reply #11 on: 08/18/2009 02:50 pm »
Yeah, I agree that active shielding makes a lot of sense. There is also a lot of very interesting biological research to be applied to find medications or supplements to help astronauts stay healthy or at least alive in spite of radiation.
Chris  Whoever loves correction loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.

To the maximum extent practicable, the Federal Government shall plan missions to accommodate the space transportation services capabilities of United States commercial providers. US law http://goo.gl/YZYNt0

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