Moon 2 Mars Space Radiation Protection – “Buying Down” Risks to Crew

On the International Space Station (ISS), astronauts receive orders of magnitude more radiation exposure than modern terrestrial radiation workers. As NASA develops long-duration missions beyond low Earth orbit (LEO), crew radiation exposures will exceed ISS mission levels. For human missions to Mars, exposures will exceed NASA’s radiation standard of 600 mSv. Additionally, technology solutions to significantly reduce exposures are mass prohibitive within NASA’s Moon 2 Mars (M2M) architecture. The resultant larger exposures will put crew at increased risk of developing cardiac, vascular, and cerebrovascular diseases in addition to radiogenic cancers. Research is required to quantify these risks and identify countermeasure strategies within mission constraints (mass, power, volume). The integrated solutions to protect crew span both physical shielding design and biological mitigation strategies including in situ monitoring, biological countermeasure development, understanding individual sensitivity, and post-mission surveillance. Agreement on space radiation health research and test objectives is needed to align biological deliverables with Agency technology roadmaps to develop an integrated protection strategy. Here, we focus on the biological aspects of protection including crew exposure levels for each M2M mission segment and research objectives to “buy down’ associated radiogenic health risks.