Speculative Fact #257: Interplanetary Radiation and Brain Damage

There has been a lot of talk lately about a manned mission to Mars. Such a mission has many challenges: it will be costly and fraught with many perils for the crew. A recent study has revealed a danger even greater than we realized - radiation.
            An experiment bombarded lab mice with radiation to simulate the kind of cosmic radiation astronauts would get exposed to. The exposed mice were less “responsive” afterwards and their brains showed signs of reduced connections. The effects from radiation would accumulate over time and could be disastrous for a human crew.
            Before we can send humans to Mars (or any other planet) research and development must be done on things like the next generation of radiation shields.

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