| From: US4RMC::"[email protected]" "Peter Yee" 3-JUN-1994 17:54:12.37
To: [email protected]
CC:
Subj: NASA and American Geophysical Union honor James A. Van Allen
[Release 94-81] (Forwarded)
Don Savage
Headquarters, Washington, D.C. May 24, 1994
(Phone: 202/358-1547)
RELEASE: 94-81
NASA AND AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION HONOR JAMES A. VAN ALLEN
NASA and the American Geophysical Union (AGU) honored
pioneering space scientist Dr. James A. Van Allen, Professor
Emeritus at the University of Iowa in a ceremony on his 80th
birthday. The ceremony was held at the AGU's 75th
anniversary meeting in Baltimore, Md., today.
NASA presented Dr. Van Allen with an original computer
painting commemorating his distinguished half-century career
studying planetary magnetospheres and cosmic rays. Dr. Van
Allen is most well-known for his discovery of the belt of
radiation around the Earth that bears his name. His
radiation-measuring equipment aboard the first successful
American satellites, Explorers 1 and 3, launched in 1958,
provided data for the first space-age scientific discovery --
the existence of a doughnut-shaped region of charged particle
radiation trapped by the EarthUs magnetic field.
Dr. Van Allen and his team also provided instruments
for other NASA missions including energetic charged particle
detectors aboard the Venus-bound Mariner 2 and Mars-bound
Mariner 4, an energetic charged particle detector on the
Explorer 35 (the first American spacecraft to orbit the
Moon), and energetic charged particle detectors aboard the
Jupiter-bound Pioneers 10 and 11. Dr. Van Allen's
instruments aboard Pioneer 10 contributed to the discovery of
the magnetosphere and radiation belts of Jupiter and the
radiation belts of Saturn. In addition to studying Jupiter
and Saturn, Dr. Van Allen and his team used Pioneer 10 and 11
data to study the galactic cosmic rays in the solar system.
The AGUUs Space Physics and Aeronomy Section also
sponsored a special Van Allen Symposium featuring invited
speakers on past accomplishments, recent important results
and future prospects in a number of areas in which Dr. Van
Allen has made significant contributions.
|
| Article: 5536
From: [email protected] (Kenneth C. Jenks)
Newsgroups: sci.space.policy
Subject: Apollo mission radiation levels (was: Apollo faked? Good article)
Date: 9 Sep 1994 19:54:50 GMT
Organization: NASA/JSC/SD5, Space Biomedical Research Institute
Over in sci.space.policy, Kurt Quamme ([email protected]) wrote:
: I recently read an article that stated we could not have gone to the
: moon due to the radiation levels the astronauts would have been exposed
: to. The claim was made that a medium solar flare produces on the order
: of 10,000 to 70,000 REM of radiation and the Apollo mission would have
: been exposed to about 20 on average during the week. The question is posed
: "If the space suits used on the moon are so radiation proof why are they
: not being used to enter and repair nuclear reactors?"
: I believe we went to the moon, I am just interested in comments/discussion
: on this issue. Are the radiation numbers correct? (since it only takes
: around 1000 REM of exposure to cause serious injury or death).
From the book entitled "Biomedical Results of APOLLO" (1975, editors
Johnson, Dietlein, and Berry, NASA SP-368, LOC # 75-600030, p.112),
the average radiation doses of the flight crews for the Apollo
missions were:
Apollo Mission Skin Dose, rads
-------------- ---------------
7 0.16
8 0.16
9 0.20
10 0.48
11 0.18
12 0.58
13 0.24
14 1.14
15 0.30
16 0.51
17 0.55
From the text: "Radiation doses measured during Apollo were
significantly lower than the yearly average of 5 rem set by the U.S.
Atomic Energy Commission for workers who use radioactive materials in
factories and institutions across the United States. Thus, radiation
was not an operational problem during the Apollo Program."
FYI, astronauts are classified as "radiation workers" under OSHA rules.
-- Ken Jenks, NASA/JSC/SD5, Space Biomedical Research Institute
[email protected] (713) 483-4368
"If it can't be expressed in figures,
it is not science; it is opinion."
-- Robert A. Heinlein
|