All news

Flight to Mars to cut cosmonauts’ lifespan by 2.5 years, says report

This is due to the space radiation effect

MOSCOW, December 10. /TASS/. The space radiation effect during an inter-planetary flight to the Red Planet will reduce the cosmonauts’ lifespan by 2.5 years, according to the materials released at the 17th conference on space biology and medicine in Moscow on Monday.

"For a two-year length of the expedition’s flight to Mars and back, the aggregate radiation risk during the cosmonauts’ lifespan irrespective of their age under the RR [radiation risk] protection of 20 g/sq. cm will measure 7.5%, while the average upcoming lifespan will decrease by 2.5 years," the report says.

Also, the aggregate radiation risk throughout the cosmonauts’ career after the inter-planetary flight and the preliminary four orbital half-yearly flights (or two-year flights) will equal about 12%, which is somewhat higher than the 10% risk level throughout the cosmonauts’ career for orbital flights in Russia existing today and approved by Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos and the Federal Agency for Medical, Biological and Extreme Problems (Medbioextrem).