Human Research Program

Research using rodent models has demonstrated that exposure to space-relevant doses and types of charged particles causes persistent cognitive dysfunction, including measurable deficits in learning, memory and decision-making.

Studies published through NASA's Human Research Program have linked cosmic radiation to increased cancer risk, cardiovascular disease, cataracts, degenerative tissue effects, and central nervous system damage.

A crew member on a multi-decade interstellar mission would accumulate radiation doses far exceeding any limit ever established for astronauts.

The cumulative effect would not be a single dramatic event, but a slow degradation of cellular integrity, organ function and cognitive performance over years and decades.

But even in this best-case scenario, the crew that arrives would not be the crew that departed.

43 years of continuous exposure to galactic cosmic radiation, even partially mitigated by the best conceivable shielding, would leave measurable marks on every person aboard.

Research conducted through NASA's Human Research Program and at facilities like the Brookhaven National Laboratory has established that charged particle radiation at space-relevant doses causes structural changes in the brain dendritic spines the microscopic projections that form the connection points between neurons thin and retract synaptic density decreases neuroinflammation persists long after exposure In animal models, these changes correlate with measurable deficits in learning, memory, spatial navigation, and the ability to distinguish between familiar and novel stimuli.

Over 43 years, the cumulative neurological impact could be profound.

There is no simple engineering fix.

NASA's Human Research Program identifies space radiation as one of the top five risks for deep space missions.

The concern is not limited to long-term cancer probability, though that alone is serious.

A multi-year transit beyond the magnetosphere would expose the crew to cumulative doses high enough to raise the risk of cataracts, cardiovascular disease and central nervous system effects that are only now beginning to be understood.

Um, these are programs that are meant to fund research into advanced technologies.

The first being that, that NASA opened the Human Research Program.

So this is a program to research the effects of lunar habitation on humans for the periods of, like, one week to one month.

So it's pretty open.