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27.4.2022
With the Artemis I mission, NASA will send a spacecraft to the moon this year for the first time in almost 50 years. On board the uncrewed test flight: the two female radiation measuring mannequins Helga and Zohar, who are now on their way to NASA in Florida. The identical “phantoms” will sit in the cockpit of the Orion capsule and collect data as part of the MARE experiment led by the DLR Institute of Aerospace Medicine: Specially modelled on female bodies, they will be used to measure the radiation exposure during the entire flight, which will last up to six weeks, in order to also obtain data for the female body and its special radiation exposure for the later Artemis flights.
Researchers from the DLR Institute of Aerospace Medicine in Cologne have successfully prepared the experiment and have now delivered it for installation at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC). Part of the experiment is also a radiation protection vest that is being tested. The launch of Artemis I is currently planned for summer 2022. The assembly and installation of the measuring mannequins is to begin around four weeks before the actual launch.
The radiation to which the human body is exposed is significantly higher outside Earth’s protective magnetic field. The female body is more sensitive to this radiation than the male body in organs such as the breasts. Overall, radiation is one of the greatest challenges posed by longer astronautical missions into deep space, such as those to Mars. “With MARE, the largest radiation experiment ever to be flown beyond low Earth orbit, we are looking to find out exactly how radiation levels affect female astronauts over the course of an entire flight to the Moon, and which protective measures might help to counteract this,” says Thomas Berger, Head of the Biophysics working group in the Radiation Biology Department at the DLR Institute of Aerospace Medicine. “Over the past few months at the DLR sites in Cologne and Bremen, we have been studying the phantoms – Helga and Zohar – thoroughly, including conducting tests to determine the effects of the vibrations that they will be subjected to during the launch of the Artemis I mission. The aim is to ensure that everything runs smoothly later at the Kennedy Space Center.”
The twin mannequins are modelled on female bodies. In general, women are at greater risk of suffering cancer, so different radiation boundary values always apply to female astronauts than to their male colleagues. However, so far there have been no sex-specific measurements using phantoms in space. “More specifically, both mannequins are made from materials that mimic the human bones, soft tissues and organs of an adult woman. Over 10,000 passive sensors and 34 active radiation detectors are integrated into the 38 slices that make up the mannequins,” explains MARE Project Manager Thomas Berger. Both phantoms are 95 centimetres tall and weigh 36 kilograms. One of them – Helga – will fly unprotected to the Moon, while the other – Zohar – will wear a newly developed radiation protection vest, called the AstroRad. By comparing the two sets of data, it will be possible to determine the extent to which the vest developed by the DLR’s Israeli partners could protect an astronaut from harmful radiation exposure.
“Cosmic rays are a particular challenge for long missions in open space, because they deliver a continuous level of high-energy ionised particles," explains Christine Hellweg, Head of the Radiation Biology Department at the DLR Institute of Aerospace Medicine. “Particles in cosmic rays range from hydrogen to iron and uranium.”
Anthropomorphic phantoms measure radiation Helga and Zohar are anthropomorphic phantoms – measuring bodies modelled on a human torso. DLR has plenty of experience in this area: a phantom called Matroshka, developed by the DLR Institute of Aerospace Medicine in Cologne, was deployed on the ISS between 2004 and 2011. Mounted to the exterior of the ISS, the phantom gathered radiation readings representative of those experienced by an astronaut performing a spacewalk. The phantom was also placed in different parts of the Space Station to measure radiation exposure. “Astronauts on the ISS are exposed to radiation levels that are approximately 250 times higher than that experienced by people on Earth. Radiation exposure during exploration missions further from Earth’s magnetic field or in interplanetary space could be much higher – in fact, our estimates predict up to 700 times higher,”says Berger.
About the MARE experiment
The MARE experiment is led by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The primary project partners are the Israeli Space Agency (ISA), Israeli industry partner StemRad, which developed the AstroRad protective vest, Lockheed Martin and NASA. Due to its complexity and the scale of international collaboration with many different universities and research institutions in Europe, Japan and the USA, MARE is the largest instrument ever designed to determine radiation exposure for astronauts who have left low-Earth orbit. It will provide fundamental data for assessing the radiation risk on the upcoming crewed flights to the Moon.
The DLR press release with pictures and video can be found at:
https://www.dlr.de/content/en/articles/news/2022/02/20220427_dlr-sends-female-measuring-mannequins-for-artemis-I.html