One of the most hotly contested procedures during the Apollo missions was the how NASA dealt with the issue of the Van Allen belts, the naturally occurring belts of radiation that surround the earth, both on the journey to the moon and returning from it.
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To some this just proves the point that NASA never went to the moon because they contest that if the crew went through the Van Allen belts they would have received a lethal dose of radiation and died during or shortly afterwards but as we know that didn’t happen, so how did they achieve this.
Mention word “radiation” and most people will think of X-rays and the atom bomb, Hiroshima, Chernobyl and therefore associate it with bad things.
Yes, you do need thick lead shielding against high-intensity X-rays but the radiation in the Van Allen belts is not X-rays, its charged particles.
There are two main types of radiation, the first is electromagnetic waves. This covers everything from the radio waves, through microwaves, infrared which we feel as heat, visible light on through ultraviolet, X-rays to Gamma rays, that is the electromagnetic spectrum.
The second type of radiation is charged particles, these are the component parts of atoms such as protons, neutrons and electrons which have been broken apart by nuclear reactions or extreme heat as in the sun.
These particles flow out from the sun as the solar wind and because they have a positive or negative electric charge they react with the earths magnetic field. Some are attracted to the north and south poles where they enter the atmosphere and react with the air to create the northern and southern lights.
Others are captured into the bands of the magnetic fields around the earth where they form the Van Allen belts. These consist of an inner and outer belt and a third temporary belt which appears when the sun has large solar flares.
These bands extend from around 1000 to 60,000 miles above the earths surface with the most active areas centred around the equatorial area of the earth but these thin out nearer the poles.
This type charged particle radiation is known ionising radiation, which means that the particles have enough energy to knock electrons from atoms or molecules that make up the spacecraft and the crew inside which can cause tissue damage if there is a high enough exposure for long enough.
The main types of ionising particles in the Van Allen belts are high energy protons and electrons, the protons can be stopped by light metals such as the aluminium skin of the craft and the epoxy resin heatshield.
Electrons also known as Beta particles can penetrate several inches into a living tissue but because they are very small they tend don’t do much damage…..
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