The IRIS mission is expected to last two years and cost more than 180 million dollars. But scientists say the solar explorer could keep going much longer. IRIS is set to launch on a Pegasus XL rocket from a military base in California on June 26. I’m Katherine Cole.
Scientists, astronauts and space exploration fans have been dreaming about sending human beings to Mars for years. The American space agency has plans to make it happen by the middle of the 2030s. Recently, new information about a danger linked to the trip got NASA searching for solutions. Christopher Cruise tells us more.
NASA officials hope to send humans to Mars in about 20 years. But it is a goal that has technical and medical barriers.
New findings published in the journal Science suggest that a trip to Mars could give travelers a greater risk of radiation than NASA permits. Earlier research already has established that exposure to radiation increases a person’s risk of developing cancer.
The radiation measurements noted in the Science report were from the spaceship that carried the Rover exploratory vehicle to Mars in 2011. An instrument on the vehicle has been recording radiation levels since it landed on the red planet. It found that the amount of radiation exposure was a large fraction of what is considered an acceptable limit over an astronaut’s lifetime.
Cary Zeitlin is with the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. His team examined the radiation measures collected. This was done on the 253-day, 560 million kilometer trip to Mars. Cary Zeitlin says space travelers would face radiation exposure comparable to getting full body computed tomography x-rays every five to six days. He says the results are worrying.
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2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25