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Academic Training Lecture Regular Programme
Surviving in space: the challenges of a manned mission to Mars (2/3)
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Europe/Zurich
500/1-001 - Main Auditorium (CERN)
Description
Lecture #2 Dosimetry and the Effects of the Exposure of Human Tissue to Heavily Ionizing Radiation
We have been aware since before the Second World War of the hazards associated with the exposure to radiation. We generally separate radiation exposures into two classes, Acute and Chronic. Acute doses occur over relatively short time periods and are severe enough to be immediately life-threatening. Chronic doses are space out in time such that they do not pose the same kind of hazard. Given the human body's ability to repair itself, the effects of such exposures are "stochastic," and the life threatening aspects are manifested by such things as an increased risk of cancer later in life. There are also other known long-term effects of chronic radiation exposures that are not life-threatening such as cataract formation in the lens of the eye. Understanding these threats poses a novel problem in that we have virtually no data on the effects of such radiation exposures on humans. The microscopic effects of the heavily ionizing radiation encountered in the space radiation environment are quite different from the kinds of radiation exposures (like those experienced by the Hiroshima survivors) that we have any significant data on. The present astronaut exposure experience itself only provides an upper limit to the potential effects of modest exposures. Extensive cell-based experimental programs are underway to understand the effects as best we can, but translating these directly into a risk assessment for long-term whole-body chronic exposures is very problematic at present. The details of what is known and what is being measured will be discussed.
