FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

NASA Seeks Cooperation with Russia To Protect Astronauts from Solar Radiation Hazards

Feb. 11, 2019 (EIRNS)—A letter has been sent by NASA’s Johnson Space Center inviting Russian scientists to jointly develop a system of forecasting radiation hazards during solar flares in order to protect the crew of NASA’s prospective lunar-orbit space station Gateway.

TASS quoted Mikhail Panasyuk, the head of the Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics at Lomonosov Moscow State University, as saying,

“We have recently received a letter from our U.S. colleagues working in the field of radiation safety at the Johnson Space Center with a proposal to discuss creation of a system to predict radiation hazards from solar flares for long-term interplanetary flights. And, first of all, we are talking about the lunar near-Moon station. Russia has created a system of radiation control in the near-Earth space at different orbits, from lower to geostationary ones. It is a big achievement.”

The Russian scientists are already cooperating with European partners in research on space radiation effects within a project on Cosmic Rays and Radiation Events in the Atmosphere (CRREAT), Panasyuk said.