OLLOW ANYBODY AT THE
BECAUSE I NO LONGER
WITTER MYSELF. IT’S
NE FOR ME, I DON’T EVEN
AVE MY OWN PASSWORD”
HARD DAWKINS, pTHE TEAM
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radioactive
Havingreadyourarticleon
provingtheMoonlanding
(Summer,p65),therewasone
areaquotedbyconspiracy
theoriststhatwasnottouched:
radiation.Asthisis oneofthe
mainargumentsagainstthe
ightandlanding,wasthis
deliberatelyignored?Is thereno
proofthatastronautscould
survivetheradiation?
MichaelStockford,viaemaiLYou’rerightthatradiationwasa
potentialdanger.Inparticular,
theVanAllenradiationbeltsare
streamsofhigh-energy
particlesfromtheSunthathave
becometrappedintheEarth’smagnetic field. Spacecra in low
Earth orbit circle beneath them,
but anything heading further
afield must pass through this
hazardous zone.
NASA was well aware of the
risk, and consequently the
Apollo missions took
trajectories that minimised
their time in the belts and
avoided the densest regions.GET T Y IMAGES X2, SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
Plus, the spacecra hulls
provided the astronauts with
some degree of shielding. All
told, each Apollo 11 crew
member soaked up radiation to
the tune of about two-fi hs the
annual ambient dose received
by a human on Earth. In other
words, not very much. Certainly
nothing to worry about.
Paul Parsons,science writerThe Earth’s Van Allen radiation belts, visualised here by bright blue and purple areas“THE SPACECRAFT HULLS
PROVIDED THE ASTRONAUTS
OF THE APOLLO 11 CREW
WITH SOME DEGREE
OF SHIELDING”