Cosmic Radiation Exposure and Astronauts

Orange County, CA - October 22nd, 2018 -   A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) looks into the effects of deep space travel on astronauts. It suggests that deep space exposure of high-energy radiation can significantly damage gastrointestinal (GI) tissue leading to long-term functional alterations.

Previously, researchers highlighted possible impairment to brain tissue along with rapid aging due to long space trips in their work. Life on Earth is protected from the full impact of solar and cosmic radiation by the magnetic fields that surround the Earth and by the Earth’s atmosphere.

“With the current shielding technology, it is difficult to protect astronauts from the adverse effects of heavy ion radiation. Although there may be a way to use medicines to counter these effects, no such agent has been developed yet. While short trips, like the times astronauts traveled to the Moon, may not expose them to this level of damage, the real concern is lasting injury from a long trip, such as a Mars or other deep space missions which would be much longer,” says senior investigator, Kamal Datta, MD, an associate professor in the Department of Biochemistry and a project leader of the NASA Specialized Center of Research (NSCOR) at GUMC.

Mice were exposed to a low dose of iron radiation at the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory (NSRL) in Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, and the animals were then examined at Georgetown. The researchers compared a group of mice that received heavy ions, to mice exposed to gamma rays, and to a third unexposed control group. The results showed the intestinal cells in the heavy ion group did not absorb nutrients adequately. They formed and that they formed a cancerous growth on the inner surface of the colon.