He calculates that a shield with an area of three square metres and with a mass of 21 kilograms would keep astronauts safe from most X-ray flares. “If you’re on a rover or something miles from the Moon base, then you have no hope of getting back to shelter,” Smith says. He suggests that astronauts be given protective aluminium shields to carry with them when they roam far from base. ![]() Smith says that because there would be no warning, the X-ray threat should not be ignored. “The main concern is solar particle events.” “The frequency of those events is very rare – it’s not likely to happen,” he says. Marcelo Vazquez of Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, US, who studies the health effects of particle radiation, agrees that there is a risk, but stresses the flares that produce large quantities of X-rays are not common. HZE ions are also components of the Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCRs) and are the most harmful type of radiation that astronauts face. HZE stands for High(H), atomic number (Z), and Energy (E). Solar energetic particles (SEPs) include protons, electrons, and HZE ions. Once leaving the near-Earth environment and going into space. In space, this radiation can have both solar and galactic origins. ![]() The Sun has even produced flares that could kill an unprotected spacesuited human on the Moon, they say, although these are extremely rare. The study of the acceleration and propagation mechanism of solar energetic particles is of great importance in space physics. ![]() The level of radiation they consider harmful is 0.1 Gray or more, which can cause bleeding ulcers and other internal damage, and would certainly increase an astronaut’s risk of cancer.
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