Astronauts on the Artemis mission will face a harsher radiation environment than the crew of the International Space Sation (Picture:Nasa/Lockheed Martin/DLR)
Nasa is sending female ‘manikins’ for a trip around the Moon to measure the radiation risks for female astronauts for the first time.
‘Helga’ and ‘Zohar’ are an inanimate pair of test dummies modelled after the body of an adult woman.
In 2019, Nasa pledged to put a women on the moon by 2024 as part of its ‘Artemis’ mission which will return humans to the Moon for the first time in over 50 years.
However, Nasa has little to no data on the effects of space radiation for its female astronauts.
The Artemis I mission, scheduled for later this year, will have an uncrewed Orion capsule travel to the Moon and back. On board will be twin measuring mannequins Helga and Zohar, to detect radiation levels during the lunar mission.
More than 10,000 passive sensors and 34 active radiation detectors are integrated into the 38 discs that make up the manikins.
Both phantoms are 95 centimetres tall and weigh 36 kilograms (Picture: DLR)
The manikins are a part of the MARE experiment devised by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) that will use the two identical ‘phantoms’ to investigate radiation exposure throughout the flight, which may last up to six weeks.
Helga and Zohar are anthropomorphic phantoms modelled on a female human torso, measuring 95 centimetres tall and weighing 36 kilograms.
‘More specifically, both mannequins are made from materials that mimic the human bones, soft tissues and organs of an adult woman,’ said Thomas Berger, head of the biophysics group in the Radiation Biology Department at the DLR.
The DLR had previously deployed a phantom called Matroshka on the ISS, between 2004 and 2011, to study the effect of radiation on astronauts during a spacewalk.
In general, women are at greater risk of suffering cancer, so different radiation boundary values apply to female astronauts than their male colleagues. However, so far there have been no sex-specific measurements using phantoms in space.
Nasa is sending female ‘manikins’ for a trip around the Moon to measure the radiation risks for female astronauts for the first time (Picture: DLR)
Helga is scheduled to fly unprotected to the Moon, while Zohar will wear a newly developed radiation protection vest, called the AstroRad.
By comparing the two sets of data, scientists hope to determine the effectiveness of the vest in protecting an astronaut.
Earth’s atmosphere and the shielding effect of its magnetic field protect us from most of the radiation in the universe, including radiation from the Sun. When astronauts leave Earth, they are exposed to the full spectrum of radiation found in space.
Astronauts on the Artemis mission will face a harsher radiation environment than the crew of the International Space Sation.
What are anthropomorphic phantoms?
In radiology, anthropomorphic phantoms are objects that simulate patients, made of materials with similar tissue characteristics to normal biological organisms.
Helga and Zohar will be joined by a third manikin that will collect data about flight accelerations and vibrations.
Artemis I is now planned to launch in summer 2022. The assembly and installation of the measuring mannequins is scheduled to take place approximately four weeks before the launch.
Last year, Nasa said that it was delaying its mission to send the first woman to the moon until 2025, amid litigation over the Blue Origin lawsuit and unexpected costs.
