New NASA Facility Will Help Protect Space Crews From Radiation

Dolores Beasley
Headquarters, Washington                    October 14, 2003
(Phone: 202/358-1753)

William Jeffs
Johnson Space Center, Houston
(Phone: 281/483-5035)

Steve Roy
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
(Phone: (256/544-0034)

RELEASE: 03-326

NEW NASA FACILITY WILL HELP PROTECT SPACE CREWS FROM RADIATION

     Imagine a human spacecraft crew voyaging through space. A 
satellite sends a warning; energetic particles are being 
accelerated from the sun's corona, sending dangerous radiation 
toward their spacecraft, but the crew isn't worried. Long 
before their journey, researchers on Earth conducted 
experiments to accurately measure the hazards of space 
radiation and developed new materials and countermeasures to 
protect them.

To ensure the safety of spacecraft crews, NASA biologists and 
physicists will perform thousands of experiments at the new 
$34 million NASA Space Radiation Laboratory (NSRL) 
commissioned today at the Department of Energy's (DOE) 
Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, N.Y. The laboratory, 
built in cooperation between NASA and DOE, is one of the few 
facilities that can simulate the harsh space radiation 
environment.

"Scientists will use this facility as a research tool to 
protect today's crews on the International Space Station and 
to enable the next generation of explorers to safely go beyond 
Earth's protected neighborhood," said Guy Fogleman, director 
of the Bioastronautics Research Division, Office of Biological 
and Physical Research (OBPR), at NASA Headquarters in 
Washington.

Space radiation produced by the sun and other galactic sources 
is more dangerous and hundreds of times more intense than 
radiation sources, such as medical X-rays or normal cosmic 
radiation, usually experienced on Earth. When the intensely 
ionizing particles found in space strike human tissue, it can 
result in cell damage and may eventually lead to cancer.

Approximately 80 investigators will conduct research annually 
at the new facility. "The NSRL will enable us to triple the 
ability of researchers to perform radiobiology experiments and 
the resulting science knowledge," said Frank Cucinotta, the 
program scientist for NASA's Space Radiation Health Project at 
Johnson Space Center, Houston. "Scientists at universities and 
medical centers across the nation will use the facility to 
investigate how space radiation damages cells and tissues such 
as the eyes, brain and internal organs," he said.

For each experiment, an accelerator produces beams of protons 
or heavy ions. These ions are typical of those accelerated in 
cosmic sources and by the sun. The beams of ions move through 
a 328-foot transport tunnel to the 400-square-foot, shielded 
target hall. There, they hit the target, which may be a 
biological sample or shielding material.

"Physicists will measure how specific particles interact with 
shielding material, " said James Adams, the program scientist 
for the Space Radiation Shielding Program at NASA's Marshall 
Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. "We can use this 
knowledge to improve our ability to predict the effectiveness 
of various materials and to develop and test new materials."

At NSRL, the radiation health team will perform extensive 
tests with biological samples placed in the path of the 
radiation. They will use the information to understand 
mechanisms of radiation damage to cells, predict risks, and 
develop countermeasures that mitigate radiation effects. 
"Advances in radiation detection, shielding and other 
radiation-mitigation techniques may be applied to workers in 
space and on Earth and may lead to improved use of radiation 
to treat disease on Earth and prevent radiation-induced 
illnesses," Fogleman said.

Since the 1970s, NASA has been using particle accelerators to 
understand and mitigate the risks of space radiation. The NSRL 
will take advantage of the high-energy particle accelerators 
at Brookhaven National Laboratory, a DOE facility established 
in 1947. Construction of the new facility began in 1998, and 
was funded in part by NASA's Office of Biological and Physical 
Research.

For more information about NASA on the Internet, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

For information about Brookhaven National Laboratory, contact: 
Mona S. Rowe at: 631/344-5056, or for information on the 
Internet, visit: 

http://www.bnl.gov


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