Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 30, 2025
Exploring the Effects of Spaceflight on Mouse Physiology using the Open Access NASA GeneLab Platform
Published on: January 13, 2019
Evaluating the biological impact of shelters on astronaut health during different solar particle events: a Geant4-DNA
Hassan Vafapour1, Payman Rafiepour2, Javad Moradgholi1
1Ionizing and Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection Research Center (INIRPRC), Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
Abstract:
Mechanistic Monte Carlo simulations have proven invaluable in tackling complex challenges in radiobiology, for example for protecting astronauts from solar particle events (SPEs) during deep space missions which remains an underexplored area. In this study, the Geant4-DNA Monte Carlo code was used to assess the DNA damage caused by SPEs and evaluate the protective effectiveness of a multilayer shelter. By examining the February 1956 and October 1989 SPEs-two extreme cases-the results showed that the proposed shelter reduced DNA damage by up to 57.9% for the October 1989 SPE and 36.7% for the February 1956 SPE. Cell repair and survival modeling further revealed enhanced cell survival with the shelter, reducing lethal DNA damage by up to 64.3% and 88.2% for February 1956 and October 1989 SPEs, respectively. The results presented here highlight the crucial importance of developing effective radiation shielding to protect astronauts during solar storms and emphasizes the need to improve predictions of solar particle events to optimize shelter design.
More Related Videos
09:11Assessment of Global Ocular Structure Following Spaceflight Using a Micro-Computed Tomography Micro-CT Imaging Method
Published on: October 27, 2020
05:56Construction of a Compact Low-Cost Radiation Shield for Air-Temperature Sensors in Ecological Field Studies
Published on: November 6, 2018
Related Concept Videos
01:35Mutations
Chromosomal Alterations Are Large-Scale Mutations
While point mutations are changes in a single nucleotide in...
02:59Biological Effects of Radiation
01:38Nucleotide Excision Repair
Cells are regularly exposed to mutagens—factors in the environment that can damage DNA and generate mutations. UV radiation is one of the most common mutagens and is estimated to introduce a significant number of changes in DNA. These include bends or kinks in the structure, which can block DNA replication or transcription. If these errors are not fixed, the damage can cause mutations, which in turn can result in cancer or disease depending on which sequences are...