Abstract
One of the major concerns for astronauts on missions outside low Earth orbit (LEO) is the potential detrimental effects of space radiation. This section includes a series of articles that describe the following: the space radiation environment in unshielded interplanetary space, how the radiation environment is altered by shielding from space craft, the astronauts’ bodies themselves and other deliberately added shielding materials, the energy deposition patterns (track structures) of the ionizing particles in space and the biological importance of the tracks, and major biological impacts of those charged particles on humans, both potential acute effects that could occur during a space mission and long-term effects that might result in adverse health effects long after astronauts have completed their missions and returned to Earth. This overview briefly summarizes the information presented in the following articles.
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Held, K.D. (2021). Space Radiation: An Overview. In: Young, L.R., Sutton, J.P. (eds) Handbook of Bioastronautics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12191-8_131
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12191-8_131
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