How NASA Will Protect Astronauts From Space Radiation
August 1972, as NASA scientist Ian Richardson remembers it, was hot. In Surrey, England, where he grew up, the fields were brown and dry, and people tried to stay out of the Sun, indoors and televisions on. But for several days that month, his TV picture kept breaking up. “Do not adjust your set,” he recalls the BBC announcing. “Heat isn’t causing the interference. It’s sunspots.”
The same sunspots that disrupted the television signals led to enormous solar flares — powerful bursts of radiation from the Sun — Aug. 4-7 that year. Between the Apollo 16 and 17 missions, the solar eruptions were a near miss for lunar explorers. Had they been in orbit or on the Moon’s surface, they would have sustained dangerous levels of solar radiation sparked by the eruptions. Today, the Apollo-era flares serve as a reminder of the threat of radiation exposure for technology and astronauts in space. Understanding and predicting solar eruptions is crucial for safe space exploration.
Almost 50 years since those 1972 storms, the data, technology and resources available to NASA have improved, enabling advancements towards space weather forecasts and astronaut protection — key to NASA’s Artemis program to return astronauts to the Moon.
Music credits: “Boreal Moment” by Benoit Scarwell [SACEM]; “Sensory Questioning”, “Natural Time Cycles”, “Emerging Designer”, and “Experimental Design” by Laurent Dury [SACEM]; “Superluminal” by Lee Groves [PRS], Peter George Marett [PRS] from Killer Tracks
-
1:15:36
Patriots With Grit
18 hours agoWill Their Great Reset Backfire? | Larry Ballard
30.4K30 -
1:00:13
The Squad
1 day agoMckenna To Man Utd ON! ✅ Man Utd Will Get DESTROYED By Man City! 🥲 Arsenal To Sign Brobbey?!
17K6 -
7:30
Adam Does Movies
19 hours agoFuriosa: A Mad Max Saga Movie Review - Cinema Has Returned!
30.5K46 -
9:59
Silver Dragons
23 hours agoBullion Dealer on Silver’s BIGGEST MOVE in a Decade
45.7K38 -
17:32
JoBlo Originals
23 hours agoWhat Happened to DANNY GLOVER?
46.2K24 -
22:14
MYLUNCHBREAK CHANNEL PAGE
20 hours agoAngels Helped Build the Old World?
47.1K42 -
4:16
Chris Jericho
16 hours agoTalk Is Jericho Highlight: Joel McHale x Chevy Chase & Community
41.6K5 -
2:43:34
a12cat34dog
12 hours agoROCKIN' OUT IN THE RUMBLE CREATOR HOUSE
25.3K9 -
4:27:24
Right Side Broadcasting Network
12 days agoLIVE REPLAY: President Trump Addresses Libertarian National Convention in D.C. - 5/25/24
345K532 -
2:29:01
SLS - Street League Skateboarding
10 days agoSLS APEX 02: Men's and Women’s Finals
683K27