I saw many good, seemingly well-informed answers to samantha's question. That is not one of the things I know much about. But I thought the shuttles covered a wide range of altitudes in the many missions. So none of the shuttle missions have been through the Van Allen belts? I thought they had. And the shuttle has better shielding than the Apollo craft, doesn't it?
Before anybody gets knee-jerk, I am not challenging the moon missions. I know we went and I get pi$$ed off at the people who deny that achievement for all those stupid reasons.
2007-10-19 11:38:55 · 5 answers · asked by Brant 7 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
The shuttle cannot go high enough to enter the Van Allen belts. One Gemini mission entered the belts and of course all 9 of the Apollo Moon mission passed through them. Twice. And no, the shuttle is no better shielded than Apollo or Soyuz or any other space craft. In fact, space craft are not really shielded against radiation at all. Just whatever shielding effect the regular structure might give, but no space craft is designed with radiation shielding in mind as far as I know.
2007-10-19 14:27:59 · answer #1 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The van Allen belts start at 400 or 500 miles, and generally the Shuttle flies below 350. The extend out quite far, also. As for shielding - I thought Apollo was better, but I could be wrong about that. I know the new materials used on the shuttle's windows is supposed to be more protective, but I'm not sure about the rest of the craft.
2007-10-19 19:19:07 · answer #2 · answered by quantumclaustrophobe 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No matter what, the Apollo crafts had to go through these belts and there was no way the Apollo crafts could afford to take all the weight of lead shielding with them. So they were bound to be exposed.
However... the radiation involved isn't the same kind or intensity as you might get from a nuclear bomb. You don't fall sick and your hair doesn't all fall out. It's been calculated that travelling at speed through the Van Allen belt would result in exposure of 1 rem. Radiation sickness symptoms don't start to show until you get around 25. Once you reach 100 you're going to be ill. 500 and you're probably dead. So the exposure the astronauts received is pretty mild.
Typically though, manned space flight (such as the Shuttle) stay well below the altitude of the van Allen radiation belts. Safe flight can occur below altitudes of 400 km or so
2007-10-19 18:45:48 · answer #3 · answered by m.charlee 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The Van Allen belts are considerably farther out than the low earth orbits frequented by the space shuttle and other manned carriers.
2007-10-19 18:44:35 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
The radiation levels are also a strong function of longitude and latitude. There is a spot called the South Atlantic Anomaly, which is basically where the radiation belts "touch" the surface.
http://www.aero.org/publications/crosslink/summer2003/backpage.html
This spot is VERY problematic even for LEO missions.
2007-10-19 19:10:24 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋