WASHINGTON — One of NASA’s biggest challenges in designing a mission to Mars is how to protect astronauts on the long journey through space. <br /> <br />NASA’s Human Research Program is researching how space radiation affects the human body. <br /> <br />“One of our biggest challenges on a mission to Mars is protecting astronauts from radiation,” said NASA Space Radiation Element Scientist Lisa Simonsen, reported Science Daily. “You can’t see it; you can’t feel it. You don’t know you’re getting bombarded by radiation.” <br /> <br />Space radiation has enough energy to violently collide with nuclei that make up spacecraft shielding and human tissue, according to Science Daily. <br /> <br />The collisions cause both the shielding nuclei and space radiation to break-up into several different types of new particles known as secondary radiation. <br /> <br />NASA is currently investigating the effects of galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) on the human body. <br /> <br />One of the main difficulties is that it’s hard to simulate space radiation on Earth. Lab doses of radiation could be stronger and given for a shorter time than actual conditions in space.
