....in going through the Van Allen belts ? .......if none, how did they survive ?
-
Very little from x-rays and gamma rays but then these aren't all that dangerous - you get x-rays if your doctor suspects a broken arm.
If you, like me, were dumb enough to put your hand through a flame really fast to prove it won't get burnt then you know it's not the heat that matters but the duration of exposure. The astronauts were travelling very fast during a period of relatively low solar activity. There were instruments on board to measure the amount of radiation they were exposed to and numerous experiments were done prior to the Apollo missions to test if the radiation they were being exposed to was within safe limits.
Edit:
Oh and as was pointed out above - x-rays and gamma rays aren't effected by a magnetic field, they are change neutral so the amount of x-rays and gamma rays from the Sun the astronauts would have encountered in the radiation zone would not have been all that much different from what they'd be exposed to during the rest of the journey or what the astronauts onboard the ISS are currently being exposed to and only slightly higher than what you're exposed to sitting at home. The radiation in the Van Allen radiation belt are mainly alpha particles (very dangerous but stopped by ordinary clothing, and beta particles less dangerous than alpha but more dangerous than gamma,this is stopped by simple aluminium foil - like the stuff you wrap your turkey in).
The other type of radiation not mentioned is UV radiation which is usually blocked by clothing, titanium di-oxide (what is in white paint and sun screan) and darkened glass (like the viser on their space suits). This would help protect their eye sight on the moon.
If you, like me, were dumb enough to put your hand through a flame really fast to prove it won't get burnt then you know it's not the heat that matters but the duration of exposure. The astronauts were travelling very fast during a period of relatively low solar activity. There were instruments on board to measure the amount of radiation they were exposed to and numerous experiments were done prior to the Apollo missions to test if the radiation they were being exposed to was within safe limits.
Edit:
Oh and as was pointed out above - x-rays and gamma rays aren't effected by a magnetic field, they are change neutral so the amount of x-rays and gamma rays from the Sun the astronauts would have encountered in the radiation zone would not have been all that much different from what they'd be exposed to during the rest of the journey or what the astronauts onboard the ISS are currently being exposed to and only slightly higher than what you're exposed to sitting at home. The radiation in the Van Allen radiation belt are mainly alpha particles (very dangerous but stopped by ordinary clothing, and beta particles less dangerous than alpha but more dangerous than gamma,this is stopped by simple aluminium foil - like the stuff you wrap your turkey in).
The other type of radiation not mentioned is UV radiation which is usually blocked by clothing, titanium di-oxide (what is in white paint and sun screan) and darkened glass (like the viser on their space suits). This would help protect their eye sight on the moon.
-
The Van Allen belts are regions of charged particle radiation, not gamma and x-ray radiation. There is no real difference between the gamma and x-ray flux in the belts compared to beyond them. Their protection from the electromagnetic radiation like gamma and x-rays was the spacesuit and the spacecraft. The levels of radiation in space of those kinds are not that high when considering a two week trip. Their protection against the radiation in the van Allen belts was the skin of the spacecraft. It was made mostly of aluminium, which is one of the best materials for shielding that type of radiation.
-
None, apart from a few millimeters of aluminum.
Their orbit did not pass through the inner belt at all. The inner belt has the high levels of radiation.
They passed only thru a portion of the outer belt, and that was only for a brief time.
Hey, and guess what ??
9 groups of 3 astronauts = 27 astronauts passed that way. Not just the 6 that landed on the moon.
Their orbit did not pass through the inner belt at all. The inner belt has the high levels of radiation.
They passed only thru a portion of the outer belt, and that was only for a brief time.
Hey, and guess what ??
9 groups of 3 astronauts = 27 astronauts passed that way. Not just the 6 that landed on the moon.
-
They passed through a low-intensity region of the VA Belts.
They were in the VA Belts for only a short time.
More info here: http://www.clavius.org/envrad.html
They were in the VA Belts for only a short time.
More info here: http://www.clavius.org/envrad.html