Proton Treatment Center Does Space Suit Research For NASA
Thursday, June 01, 2000
On January 10, two space suits--one American and one Russian--arrived at the Proton Treatment Center, along with experts and scientists from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
The arrival marked the beginning of a research partnership between Loma Linda University, NASA, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the University of San Francisco.
Important NASA safety concerns for long-term space travel involve the health effects of space radiation. To evaluate these effects, NASA worked with Loma Linda University to simulate the space radiation environment and understand health risks including acute radiation sickness and cancer.
The Proton Treatment Center is one of only a few facilities in the world where NASA can replicate the proton and electron radiation events that occur in space.
"Using the Loma Linda facility, we are trying to understand the protection provided by space suits from radiation in the earth's trapped radiation belts and possible solar particle events," says Francis Cucinotta, PhD, manager, Space Radiation Health Project.
The group plans to collaborate again on even more comprehensive assessments of space suit and spacecraft shielding issues in the future.
