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Go boldly to the last frontier can be the essential Star Trek dreams, but it can be dangerous – and not just in the sense of a possible collision between asteroids.
Cosmic radiation can be a real killer for astronauts taking off in deep space. If it still sounds like sci-fi horror, researchers at the Georgetown University Medical Center recently released a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) which reveals how cosmic galactic radiation (GCR) exposure could cause gastrointestinal damage severe enough to cause tumors of the stomach and colon.
Once released from the Earth's atmosphere, you are subjected to forces that could transform your cells and permanently alter your DNA. Heavy ions (radiation composed of heavier particles than helium) are something Earthmen do not have to fear because the magnetosphere of our planet protects them. The research team had previously discovered that heavy ions can damage brain tissue and even accelerate aging.
"Proliferating gastrointestinal (GI) tissues are sensitive to radiation, and it is expected that space – based heavy ion radiation with their high linear energy transfer (LET high) and their potential for Higher damage than low LET gamma rays may compromise the astronaut's GI function, "Kamal Datta, GUMC project manager at NASA's Specialized Research Center (NSCOR), and his team write.
Even X-rays and gamma rays, which are space-free massless photons, are as dangerous as heavy ions such as iron and silicon, whose mass is much greater. The shielding technology is being upgraded, but no spatial combination of superheroes capable of blocking heavy ions and other forms of potentially cancerous radiation has yet emerged, and no drug could give the disease. 39, immunity to the human body. While astronauts participating in a lunar mission are probably not threatened with irreversible damage, the future odyssey to Mars could mean danger.
Datta's team exposed mice to iron radiation to study its effects on the small intestine. The cells of the human gastrointestinal tract are constantly supposed to be renewed, the mucous layer above regenerating every day. Anything that disturbs this could lead to dysfunctions and mutations that ultimately lead to cancer. Mice exposed to heavy ions over a period supposed to reflect a journey into deep space were much less well off than those exposed to gamma rays, with distorted DNA and an increase in the number of senescent cells, which again made more dangerous the journey beyond the Earth. .
"They generate oxidative stress and inflammatory molecules that cause more damage, which has greatly affected the migration of cells needed to replace the intestinal mucosa, which has slowed down the functioning of the GI," Datta explained. Phys.org damage that can be caused by senescent cells.
Does this mean that a human mission on Mars is an impossibility in our lifetime? Not necessarily, but exciting though it is to witness these first footprints of boots in the red dust that make the news of the evening, the most important is that astronauts live themselves to talk about it.
(via Phys.org)
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