Artemis I carried two female manikins that spent nearly a month flying to the moon and back. Dubbed Zohar and Helga, the manikins \u2014 each a life-size 3 feet from head to lower torso \u2014 were strapped into the passenger seats of NASA\u2019s Orion capsule.<\/p>\n
Zohar wore the 57-pound (26-kilogram) AstroRad vest, developed by the US-Israeli startup StemRad and Lockheed Martin. The companies had already tested a prototype on the space station for comfort and function, modeling it after gear worn by nuclear disaster teams.<\/p>\n
Helga flew vest-less, but like its companion contained thousands of radiation sensors.<\/p>\n
The study\u2019s lead author, StemRad\u2019s Jordan Houri, called it \u201cthe largest experiment ever conducted to determine astronaut radiation exposure beyond low-Earth orbit.\u201d NASA, the German Aerospace Center and the Israel Space Agency provided the funding. Radiation exposure is much less for space travelers closer to home, thanks to Earth\u2019s protective atmosphere and magnetic field.<\/p>\n
\t Artemis I encountered no major solar outbursts. But based on measurements gathered as NASA\u2019s Orion capsule zipped through the inner Van Allen radiation belt, Houri and his team simulated how much protection the vest would provide during extreme solar particle events like those in 1972 and 1989 that detonated magnetic sea mines and collapsed a power grid.<\/p>\n Lucky for NASA, the 1972 solar outburst occurred in between that year\u2019s two moon landings, keeping the crews of Apollo 16 and 17 safe from potentially lethal radiation exposure.<\/p>\n The latest findings showed the vest could reduce an astronaut\u2019s radiation dose by about 60% in a solar storm as fierce as the one in 1972 and by nearly 40% in a calamity mirroring 1989. That\u2019s equivalent to 193 days and 131 days, respectively, of unnecessary deep space radiation exposure, the scientists noted.<\/p>\n While none of the Apollo moonshots exceeded two weeks, the moon-base stays envisioned by NASA will likely last weeks, if not months, driving up the risk of enduring a dangerous solar storm. Mars expeditions will last even longer \u2014 months, years and possibly entire lifetimes if SpaceX CEO Elon Musk achieves his goal of building a city on the red planet.<\/p>\n The scientists are using their observations to trim more weight from the vest without sacrificing protection. They\u2019re also investigating how to make radiation shielding from items already aboard a spacecraft \u2014 recycling that could save the lives of crews.<\/p>\n Houri doesn\u2019t anticipate a need for further deep-space testing anytime soon, since Zohar and Helga \u201cprovided us with an exceptionally large, high-fidelity dataset.\u201d<\/p>\n Zohar and her vest are now on display at Florida\u2019s Kennedy Space Center, where their journey to the moon began.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\tNASA\u2019s new moon rocket lifts off from Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2022. This launch is the first flight test of the Artemis program. (AP Photo\/John Raoux)<\/p>\n
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