Do the white things that they wear have special features to protect them aside from supplying them with oxygen to breathe?
In: Planetary Science
They don’t. They are exposed to it though earth’s magnetic field and spaceships protect them to some extent.
The astronauts and flight directors practice ALARA. As Low As Reasonably Achievable focusing on shielding and timing. Their space suits have special layers to reduce, the space craft has sections with more shielding and they can orient the better bits between them and the radiation source, and if they do spacewalks they can time to a period with least radiation.
Yeah the suits have some shielding, and the helmets have shielding too so the eyes don’t get blasted with UV
Can someone please explain this question? Is radiation in space high? High enough to harm us when we’re in space? Is all of space like that or just near the sun? I need answers!
Astronauts have talked about seeing occassional bright white flashes from behind closed eyes while trying to sleep. IIRC, it’s caused by an alpha particle or a cosmic ray passing through their retinas, which we are normally protected from here on Earth.
So yeah, you can’t completely shield yourself from radiation, and AFAIK astronauts can only spend so many years in space during their career due to potential long-term damage.
They stay well under the Van Allen belts. Nobody ventured above since the moon landings, in part for this exact reason.
So I guess the direct answer to your question is “They use the magnetic field of the Earth”.
The only way you protect from radiation is Time, Distance and Shielding.
They’re limited on what they can do with distance so they have to rely on time and shielding. Spacecraft and spacesuits are made with built in shielding to reduce the amount of radiation and they orient themselves and their craft in a way that puts the most “stuff” between people and radiation sources. And they also don’t spend a whole lot of time up in space.
Latest Answers