Two mannequins flew around the moon; Scientists have now revealed how it went and how it will affect astronauts

(CNN) –– As NASA's Artemis II mission to send four astronauts to orbit the moon nears next year, a new study reveals how well its Orion spacecraft will protect the crew.

The findings are based on data from Artemis I, which returned in late 2022 for a 25-day orbit around the moon. On that mission, the Orion capsule, which followed the same path as Artemis II, was not deployed, but it did bring special non-human guests.

Two of them were called mannequin torsos Helga and ZoharHe sailed the ship as a test to analyze how much radiation the astronauts could experience on a trip to the moon. The mannequins were made of materials that mimic a person's soft tissues, organs and bones and, like the spacecraft, included detectors that monitored radiation exposure.

Now, scientists have published the first results after studying the detector data, published this Wednesday in the journal Nature. The findings show that the shielding technology used on the spacecraft was effective in mitigating the radiation experienced during the journey.

“The Artemis I mission represents an important step forward in advancing our understanding of how space radiation affects the safety of future human missions to the Moon,” Sergi Walker Araujo, head of the European Space Agency's Space Medicine Group, said in a statement.

Araujo was not involved in the study, but the European Space Agency provided five mobile dosimeters to measure radiation throughout the Orion spacecraft.

“We've gained valuable information about how space radiation interacts with spacecraft shielding, the types of radiation that penetrate to reach the human body, and which areas on Orion offer the most protection,” Araujo said.

NASA has been studying the effects of space radiation on human health since the 1960s.

The station is in low orbit, meaning it is partially shielded by Earth's magnetic field, as well as a strong shield built into the orbiting laboratory's design. Earth's magnetic field also blocks cosmic rays from reaching astronauts.

But for future deep space missions, astronauts will move far from the safety of Earth and must rely on heavily armored spacecraft and protective space suits.

Long-duration space missions to the Moon and Mars expose astronauts to cosmic rays, or radiation from high-energy particles traveling through space. To reach space, astronauts must pass through Earth's Van Allen belts, two bands of radiation that surround our planet like giant doughnuts. Pot.

Sensors integrated with the Orion capsule have captured continuous radiation data during a tour from Earth to the Moon for the first time, researchers said. Although there was some data from the Apollo missions, it was not collected consistently.

According to the study authors, the sensors show that radiation exposure inside Orion varies significantly depending on the location of the detectors.

When Orion passed through the Van Allen belts, the data showed that the most protected areas of the capsule, such as the “storm shelter,” provided four times more protection than the least protected areas. The researchers determined that radiation exposure at these locations was kept at a safe level for astronauts to avoid severe radiation sickness.

“A storm shelter is a narrow area used to store supplies for personnel,” study lead author Stuart George, a scientist with the Space Radiation Analysis Group at NASA's Johnson Space Center, said in an email. “We found that the storm shelter is the most protected part of the vehicle, which is good because it's designed that way.”

Passing through the Van Allen belts was considered comparable to a crew encountering a space weather event.

As the Sun approaches solar maximum (the peak of its 11-year cycle, scheduled to occur this year), it becomes more active, releasing intense solar flares and coronal mass ejections. Coronal mass ejections are large clouds of ionized gas called plasma and magnetic fields emitted from the Sun's outer atmosphere.

If these explosions hit Earth, they can damage spacecraft, satellites, the space station, and even Earth's power grid.

“This helped validate our shelter design to protect the crew from energetic solar particle events caused by space weather,” George said.

Exposures to cosmic rays, which account for most of the radiation astronauts experience on long-duration spaceflight, were 60% lower on Artemis I than experienced on previous missions, including robotic missions to Mars, George said.

The team also noted one surprise in the findings. As Orion passed through the Van Allen belts, the spacecraft activated the thruster and made a turn to ensure it was on track. During the rotation, radiation levels inside the capsule were reduced by 50% because the maneuver placed Orion's shield more in the radiation path, George said.

The study authors said measurements taken during Artemis I could guide the design of future human space missions.

If a solar storm occurs while the Artemis astronauts are in space, it can last for several days.

The storm shelter concept was changed for Artemis II because the small shelter aboard Artemis I, also known as the solar particle, would not be sufficient for the crew to carry out normal operations if they had to remain there for long periods of time during a solar storm. event.

“On Artemis II, the crew will be building materials into the least protected wall of the Orion spacecraft,” George said via email.

“This means that during an energetic solar particle event, the crew can use more cabin space while being shielded from the radiation. “It will be very interesting to test this in space with a crew in orbit.”

The The main stage of the powerful Artemis II rocket It arrived at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida in the summer, and assembly is already underway on the Artemis III rocket, which is scheduled for 2026 and aims to take a woman and a man to the Moon's South Pole for the first time.

Meanwhile, the Artemis II crew, consisting of NASA astronauts Reed Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, Practice in Iceland. Although they won't land, the crew will travel 7,402 kilometers beyond the far side of the moon to image surface features such as craters from orbit.

“(Really) it's a blessing for science that humans can hold a camera on the moon and see what they can see in a language that scientists can understand,” said Kelsey Young, Artemis II's lunar science lead and official scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. in Greenbelt, Maryland, in a statement.

“To a large extent, that's what we're asking astronauts to do when we take them to environments similar to the Moon on Earth.”