Does NASA now have space suites which safely protect astronauts from the deadly Van Allen Belts.?

Question

In a previous posting, regarding manned satellites beyond the Van Allen Belts, Paul G. mentioned "The international space station is in LEO (low earth orbit) and is an area of space between 200 and 1200 km and within the Van Allen belt. Any higher and the astronauts would be affected by the radiation and could suffer serious health side effects. The astronauts that went to the moon purposely piloted their craft through a weaker area of the Van Allen Belt to minimize their exposure to the radiation." If NASA has no suits to protect the space travelers from the deadly life threatening gamma and x-rays such as those present at Chernobyl, then how is it possible that those traveling through a similar force field of radiation, as is present in the Van Allen Belts, able to survive? Where is this "weaker area" which Paul G is referring to? The belts are very thick (miles deep). How does one avoid that in a space suit?

According to the mfg. of the space suits, no such protection is available from this type of radiation, whether the astronauts are inside or outside of the space craft.

Wjohngrobmyer, what pray tell, does quoting an atheist have to do with anything. The fact that a person chooses to be an atheist only means that he is lazy intellecturally. Satan blinds many with delusions. To some, that blinding goes even so far so as to prove to the disbelieving that even Satan doesn't exist.
There are many people in this world in both camps.

To quote Thomas Payne, who many thought was an atheist, "To argue with a man who has renounced all reason, is like administering medicine to the dead." Payne was not an atheist, although the devil did do him harm in many of his conceptions about Jesus. But Payne lived in an era of Paganism, when the only "Christian" came from the unholy body of the Catholic Church, that taught so much evil that it grossly destorted reality. 42 years of his life dealing with that monster, will turn even the best of men against God's church. I don't fault Payne. I love the man and what he did for America.

Answer 1

What never ceases to amaze me is when religious zealots attempt to use selected scientific facts to prove a religious point. It's like serving raw pork to prove that BBQ ribs would taste bad. I'd suggest you become better informed about space, and do so from objective sources, before you post a psuedo-question that seeks to promote your religion rather than truly seek knowledge.

And to call athiests "lazy intellectuals" is both a generalization and a show of your personal ignorance. Assuming I'm an "average atheist", most religious promoters I've met or read have less knowledge of biblical content than I have. And most have read less objective treatments of scientific findings that are religiously controversial (space travel, evolution) than I have, including you. To me, accepting "facts" on faith rather than questioning the origins or logic is lazy intellect (at best). It's one thing to disagree with my opinion on religion, but to call me a lazy intellectual is like a weekend golfer criticizing Tiger Woods' golf game. You don't even belong on the same course.

Oh, and it's spelled "intellectually", Einsten.

To humor your psuedo-question, I quote Wkipedia:

"Proponents of the Apollo Moon Landing Hoax have argued that space travel to the moon is impossible because the Van Allen radiation would kill or incapacitate an astronaut who made the trip. Van Allen himself, now deceased (August 9, 2006), dismissed these ideas. In practice, Apollo astronauts who travelled to the moon spent very little time in the belts and received a harmless dose. [6]. Nevertheless NASA deliberately timed Apollo launches, and used lunar transfer orbits that only skirted the edge of the belt over the equator to minimise the radiation. Astronauts who visited the moon probably have a slightly higher risk of cancer during their lifetimes, but still remain unlikely to become ill because of it."

Answer 2

For someone who keeps talking about the Van Allen Belt, you know so very little about it. "Proponents of the Apollo Moon Landing Hoax have argued that space travel to the moon is impossible because the Van Allen radiation would kill or incapacitate an astronaut who made the trip. Van Allen himself, now deceased (August 9, 2006), dismissed these ideas. In practice, Apollo astronauts who travelled to the moon spent very little time in the belts and received a harmless dose. [6]. Nevertheless NASA deliberately timed Apollo launches, and used lunar transfer orbits that only skirted the edge of the belt over the equator to minimise the radiation. Astronauts who visited the moon probably have a slightly higher risk of cancer during their lifetimes, but still remain unlikely to become ill because of it."

"I looked up a typical satellite passing the radiation belts (elliptic orbit, 200 miles to 20000 miles) and the radiation dosage per year is about 2500 rem, assuming one is shielded by 1 gr/cm-square of aluminum (about 1/8" thick plate) almost all of it while passing the inner belt. But there is no danger. The way the particles move in the magnetic field prevents them from hitting the atmosphere, and even if they are scattered so their orbit does intersect the ground, the atmosphere absorbs them long before they get very far. Even the space station would be safe, because the orbits usually stop above it--any particles dipping deeper down are lost much faster than they can be replenished."

A side note here, I love that you use a quote from an Athiest.

Answer 3

All of the following information was taken from this website:
http://www.thekeyboard.org.uk/Van%20Allen%20belts.htm
Strictly used for educational uses!

It would require six feet (two meters) of lead in order to shield from the Van Allen belts. The Apollo spacecraft had nowhere near this amount of shielding and so could not have provided the astronauts adequate protection. (....But...) "six feet of lead" statistic appears in many conspiracist charges, but no one has yet owned up to being the definitive source of that figure. In fact, six feet (2 m) of lead would probably shield against a very large atomic explosion, far in excess of the normal radiation encountered in space or in the Van Allen belts.

Some how I hope this may help. I also found two more that are pretty good at explaining all of this.

Answer 4

Well inside this region of space there is an increased density of harmful radiation. An unprotected man would indeed get a lethal dose of radiation, if he stayed there long enough. Actually, the Apollo spaceship traveled through the belts pretty quickly, getting past them in an hour or so. There simply wasn't enough time to get a lethal dose, and, as a matter of fact, the metal hull of the spaceship did indeed block most of the radiation.

Answer 5

I'm no expert, but by my logic, the ISS and the various space craft humans have developed would have to have some sort of radiation sheilding. Also, space walks are not indefinite, so exposure to radiation would be somewhat limited. And I would also assume that space suits have some sort of shielding as well. And I guess the ISS being in low earth orbit would help to limit exposure. I suppose there's no way to prevent any exposure at all, but I'm sure a combination of the abovementioned helps to greatly reduce it.

Answer 6

The Van Allen Belt is now more properly known as the magnetosphere. The energy contained within is magnetic in nature. The spacesuit worn by Alan Shepherd in 1961 was plenty of protection.

Answer 7

Great question, I always wondered that. Hopefully someone knowledgeable will answer this....A little advice, keep the question open for at least a week before resolving. Sometimes on technical questions like this it takes a little bit more time, for that special person to answer...Good luck....

Answer 8

many still do not believed that the lunar landing is just a hoax to those individual who still believe that it occured this site will tell you that there was no lunar landing

http://video.google.de/videoplay?docid=1913474363747128107

Answer 9

u ******* put more letters than i did. u ******* figure it out