We've flown a radiation-blocking vest to the Moon and back, and it worked
Let's shield the astronauts instead of the spacecraft.
Solar storms can pose a significant radiation risk to astronauts, as seen during the 1972 incident that occurred between the Apollo 16 and Apollo 17 missions. Earth's atmosphere and magnetic field provide protection, but lunar and Martian missions will lack such shielding. The personal protective equipment (PPE) against radiation must be developed to safeguard astronauts.
StemRad, an Israeli-American startup, proposed shielding astronauts instead of spacecraft. To test this concept, StemRad's team flew a wearable radiation-shielding vest called AstroRad on NASA's uncrewed Artemis I mission to the Moon and back. The data collected from this flight allowed them to calculate the vest's performance during a solar storm.
The results indicated that the vest would provide radiation protection comparable to the Orion spacecraft's heavily shielded onboard shelter, intended to protect the crew during a solar storm.
Written by urgent.news from Ars Technica's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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