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#1 2013-02-21 23:26:37

Rusakov
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Registered: 2012-12-19
Posts: 34

DARPA and radiation mitigation

There's been some recent news about DARPA (a United States military research and development organization for those of you who don't know) looking into mitigating the effects of ionizing radiation on people.

http://nextbigfuture.com/2013/02/darpa- … t-and.html

From the link:

Darpa has three main research areas for enhancing nuclear radiation survival.

1) i“prophylactic” and “post-exposure” treatments that can neutralize ionizing radiation before it starts to cause serious cellular damage.

2) Another looks at how to survive and/or mitigate the long-term effects of radiation exposure, to include cancers — effectively meaning Darpa wants to push the boundaries of surviving radiation-induced cancer.

3) Get a better understanding and model of the effects of radiation on the human body, from a molecular up to a systemic level, with an eye to “mitigation and repair of genetic and cellular damage.”

I have no doubts that such research would be very valuable to a future manned Mars mission. Your thoughts?


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#2 2013-02-26 14:43:48

Number04
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From: Calgary Alberta Canada
Registered: 2002-09-24
Posts: 162

Re: DARPA and radiation mitigation

While I'm all for basic research, it sounds like this is looking at drugs rather than shielding. While advanced radiations meds would be great to have, I think proper shielding is a must.

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#3 2013-02-27 18:27:02

RobertDyck
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From: Winnipeg, Canada
Registered: 2002-08-20
Posts: 7,934
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Re: DARPA and radiation mitigation

Interesting. I've been told plants, insects, and microorganisms can withstand much more radiation than people or animals. The reason is our membranes are highly sensative to radiation damage. Anything without membranes is much more hardy. So what is it that makes our membranes so sensative? Can they be repaired? A lot of potential here.

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