Awkward Document For NASA Regarding GCR

 

Screen shot from Space Radiation and Risks to Human Health.

When browsing through NASA’s documents every so often one finds statements that do not fit the official account.  And they don’t seem to mind the contractions.   

The document “Space Radiation and Risks to Human Health” by Janice L. Huff, Ph.D., is a case in point.  She is the  Deputy Element Scientist at the NASA Space Radiation Program and this report can be found on NASA’s technical report server. 

What caught my eye was the obvious contradiction regarding the hazards of galactic cosmic rays (GCR) and no data to evaluate human health hazards.  Ironically, one of the highlighted bullet points (see above) states there is no shielding that can block GCR.  So if the Apollo astronauts went to the moon, they would have been barraged with the cosmic rays since their capsule’s shielding would not have blocked the rays.  Should they not have the human data? 

GCR also fragments into secondary high energy particles that can as the report states, “damage biomolecules, cells and tissues.”  An illustration shows the rays passing thru a human head.

Interesting how the NASA experts know about cell and tissue damage when they say they have no human data on the health hazards to reply upon.  How do they know this?  Another bullet point is professing the need for more animal experimentation.  Which apparently they haven’t done enough of, if any.

As I wrote in my article “NASA Document Implies No Go To The Moon,” NASA has no misgiving in mocking their own narrative.  In that document from their report server, a chart indicates that the sum total of Apollo radiation exposure for all missions was the same as the Space Shuttle which never left low earth orbit.  The astronaut’s dosimeter readings were the same as being in low earth orbit as well.  The highest exposure goes to the ISS.  Yet if they actually did the moon landings they are being bathed in galactic cosmic rays for the duration of the trip to the moon, on the surface during the exploration phase, and back home again.  The consequences should have been hazardous to the health and cognitive function of the astronauts and eventually, deadly. 

Besides GCR the astronauts would have been exposed to a plethora of radiation both in sis lunar space and on the moon’s surface.  Alpha, Beta, Gamma radiation as well as microwave, x-rays, etc.  These same energies would affect astronauts on the moon as well and in another odd twist, there was no adequate shielding in the suit to block all of these high energy particles.  The weak point being the helmet which was made entirely out of plastic and offered no shielding from the radiation nor any insolation from the extreme heat and cold.  

Did NASA use black budget technology in the shielding?  Unknown.  If not, then we are looking at a con job.

Sources

Space Radiation and Risks to Human Health 

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20140005866

NASA Document Implies No Go To The Moon

http://outwardtrends.blogspot.com/2018/09/nasa-document-implies-no-go-to-moon.html

Book Review: Fashioning Apollo by Nicholas de Monchaux

(Updated at: https://georgebailey.substack.com/p/its-an-empty-suit)

It’s An Empty Suit

Spacesuit--Fashioning Apollo is one of the most elegant and beautifully designed and printed books available.  It’s a paperback edition but the cover jacket has a smooth, rubberized coating.  It’s a pleasure to hold in one’s hands.  This is an experience that no digital book can ever match.  

Although published in 2011 by M.I.T. Press​,​ the information regarding the NASA spacesuits, with the emphasis on the Apollo suits is relatively up to date.  The author explores the development of spacesuits from the early pressure suits in the 1930’s onward to the space program of the 1960’s.  There is not much to be said in this book regarding spacesuits in the Shuttle era and beyond.  The author Nicholas de Monchaux does provide a good history of suit development for mankind’s reach for the stars.  

Since this book is published by the United States’s most distinguished science and engineering universities I was looking for various technical details that unfortunately, this book does not provide.  And that was the main reason I bought this book in the first place.  It is in fact, more of an easy reading account of spacesuit development for the masses.

Radiation

“NASA’s focus now is on sending humans beyond low-Earth orbit to Mars… We are trying to develop the technologies to get there, it is actually a huge technological challenge. There are a couple of really big issues. For one thing – Radiation. Once you get outside the Earth’s magnetic field we are going to be exposing the astronauts to not just radiation coming from the Sun, but also to cosmic radiation. That's a higher dose than we think humans right now should really get.”

– Dr Ellen Stofan, Chief Scientist, NASA, and principal advisor

to NASA Administrator – BBC Newsnight interview, November 2014

"Astronauts on the lunar surface could in reality be exposed to every kind of radiation – alpha, beta, microwave, x-ray, gamma, Bremsstrahlung, Cherenkov radiation, Askaryan radiation, high-energy protons and neutrons, galactic cosmic rays (GCR) and solar particle events (SPE)."

LUNAR GEOLOGY AND IONIZING RADIATION from a Revisionist Perspective

– Dr Bulcsu István Siklós

There are many hazards in space once people leave the safety of the protective magnetosphere of the earth and radiation is one of the main hazards.  It’s coming from everywhere and fills the vacuum of space.  There are cosmic galactic rays, gamma rays, x rays, charged protons and neutrons, just to mention a few.  The surface of the moon is basically a nuclear hazmat zone.  Even the famous moon dust is radiative.  That, coupled with extremes of heat and cold in a heavy vacuum, designates the surface of the moon a place where no life could ever exist.

My main interest was discovering the radiation protection in the spacesuits.  As it turned out, the book mentions nothing about it.  There is no documentation of radiation shield development, testing, or anything related.  Even the word “radiation” is not listed in the index.  The fact that 21 layers of various synthetic materials were used and not a single one has a reference to radiation in a book such as this, is a major omission.  On the contrary, it is not mentioned by NASA either.  One would think radiation shielding would be one of the most important aspects of a spacesuit, and it has no bearing in this book.  (It should be noted that the Apollo spacesuit manual, linked below, which can be downloaded from NASA makes no mention of radiation protection in the suit or helmet either.)

It is unconscionable to believe that the astronauts would be placed in such a hazardous environment without protection from one of the main hazards they faced on the surface of the moon--death by high energy particles. 

The multiple layers of insulation for thermal protection are documented, particularly the use of aluminized mylar which is listed for thermal protection.  So at least the astronauts had protection for heat over 200 degrees and cold temperatures of over -200 degrees on the moon.  But the development of this material gets no mention.   How was plastic and a metal bonded together?  How does it work to protect an astronaut?  How was it tested for this purpose?  The reader is never told. ​​Just as the beta cloth covering gets nothing more than a vague mention.

Is radiation shielding in the spacesuits classified?

Apollo spacesuit layers. Radiation shielding not listed. Image courtesy of NASA.

Don’t leave out the helmet!

Yes, it is left out of any mention in relation to spacesuit development and astronaut protection for the moon's hazardous environment.  If one reads the NASA Apollo spacesuit manual, it mentions the helmet being constructed out of polycarbonate.  In other words, plastic.  The visor assembly was polycarbonate as well.  Another fact that Fashioning Apollo makes no mention of since helmet development is ignored.

But the most distressing part of my own research into this matter involves finding that the spacesuit helmet has no thermal or lethal radiation protection of any kind, as so stated in the NASA spacesuit manual.  It does feature a beta cloth covering but that is just flame retardant cloth with fiberglass woven in.  It does not protect from the aforementioned hazards.  To be fair, the gold visor does protect the astronaut’s eyes from damaging ultraviolet rays but those rays are not life threatening.  It can hardly be expected for a thin layer of plastic to protect a person from the harmful radiation and severe heat and cold.  Why put thermal protection in the suit but ignore the helmet?  How the astronauts, if they actually walked on the moon, survived being there is a mystery.  A big enough mystery to strongly question if men actually landed there at all.

Do their heads not matter? 

In closing

There is so much more that could have been written in Fashioning Apollo to round out what the public can know about spacesuits.  The history of development is good but the author often jumps into fashion design of the 1950’s, how television works from the moon, JFK, the flight simulators, artist Robert Rauschenberg’s astronaut prints, and then leaves the reader in the lurch for the good stuff.  The radiation shielding should hold an important place in a book of this kind, but it is never covered.  

What is to be found here?  An empty suit.

Notes

Excellent article at Aulis by Scott Henderson--Apollo Space Suits: Shenanigans and Shortcomings. A must read on the space suit controversy.  

https://www.aulis.com/suits.htm

The Dangers of Space Radiation

https://www.aulis.com/investigation3.htm

LUNAR GEOLOGY AND IONISING RADIATION from a Revisionist Perspective

https://www.aulis.com/PDF/lunar_geology.pdf

NASA Apollo Spacesuit manual

https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/alsj-EMU1.pdf