Radiation-shielding vest aced Artemis I lunar test, could protect astronauts on moon and Mars missions

A radiation-shielding vest might one day protect astronauts from dangerous, random outbursts from the sun, a new study finds.

More than 50 years after the final Apollo mission, NASA's Artemis program aims to return humans to the moon .

To succeed, this project must protect astronauts from solar radiation, especially the intense and unpredictable radiation from solar storms .

Coating an entire spacecraft with a meaningfully thick layer of radiation shielding remains impractical due to weight constraints, but wrapping astronauts in protective garments may potentially be helpful.

In the new study, researchers experimented with the AstroRad vest , which was designed by the Israeli startup StemRad with support from the Israel Space Agency and aerospace giant Lockheed Martin.

The garment was created to protect astronauts from explosions from the sun known as solar particle events.

The "phantoms" Helga and Zohar inside the Orion spacecraft at NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building prior to the launch of Artemis I.

Zohar, right, wore the AstroRad vest while Helga did not. (Image credit: NASA/Lockheed Martin/DLR) " Radiation in space is unavoidable, and a single major solar particle event can make a substantial contribution to an astronaut's lifetime risk of radiation-induced cancer," study co-author Oren Milstein, CEO and co-founder of StemRad, told Space.com.

"By significantly reducing that contribution, personal shielding could be particularly important for future lunar and Mars missions." When it comes to protection against radiation, lead is excellent at blocking hazardous forms of light, such as X-rays and gamma rays.

However, lead is much less effective at defending against the kinds of dangerous particles that can hurtle through space.

For instance, when fast high-energy electrons known as beta particles strike dense lead atoms, they can trigger a shower of X-rays that are more harmful than the beta particles themselves.

And if neutrons strike lead atoms, they can knock loose a spray of neutrons from the atoms' nuclei, worsening the impact from the radiation.

Instead, AstroRad relies on a high-density plastic rich in hydrogen.

Among the elements, hydrogen possesses the highest density of electrons per atom, which can help create a dense shield to protect against incoming particles.