This is a blog entry by ESA’s Space Medicine Team
Ionising radiation is one of the major hazards of human space exploration. We, the Space Medicine Team at ESA’s European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany, are seeking your help in protecting astronauts from space radiation on their missions to the Moon and beyond. The systematic literature review we are performing is aiming to make spaceflights safer.
The first step to effective protection from negative impact of space radiation is to gain a deep understanding of what would happen to a human body after a long duration space mission. To reach this goal, we need to gather, analyse, and synthesise all scientific evidence on biological responses to ionising radiation.
We focus on two major unknowns of radiation health risks: differences between individual responses of women and men and the effects of space radiation on the Central Nervous System. We will use this information to improve health risk predictions for ESA astronauts on space missions.
How do we do it?
Collecting such data is a huge task exceeding capabilities of one group or even a whole institution. That is why we are reaching to professionals all over Europe and the world, who are passionate about space and science. We already collected a set of scientific records that have the potential to be used in our analyses. Now we need your help in selecting those studies that meet our criteria.
We use a process called ‘systematic review’, a state-of-the-art tool in operational medicine to improve medical procedures. We are supported by the best experts in evidence-based medicine from the University of Plymouth, CAMARADES Berlin and the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (BIH), who helped us to design all the tools to guide you through the process of becoming a true Citizen Scientist.
What can we do for you?
The participants of the Citizen Science project will receive a certificate and acknowledgement in a scientific publication of the results of the study and, in some special cases, even a co-authorship. Additionally, all the participants will have a chance to participate in an online lecture on space radiation and radiation protection. As a thank you to the most active citizen scientists, we also have a special surprise in store!
Sign up by filling in the form here or scan the QR code on the image below.
For more information or to get in touch with us, you can contact us at citizen.science@esa.int.
Systematic Threat Analysis Radiation from Space key visual. Credits: ESA