Astronauts will be struck by dementia on the way to Mars; Astronauts will be struck by dementia on the way to Mars.
The brains of travelers to a neighboring planet will turn into "space"
Earthlings are going to Mars. Expeditions are being prepared by the USA, China, Russia. Elon Musk, founder and CEO of space company SpaceX, intends to resettle a million people to the neighboring planet. These far-reaching plans have recently been overshadowed by scientists at the University of California, Irvine. As their experiments showed, an interplanetary flight can deprive its participants of the mind. Cosmic radiation - streams of high-energy charged particles that bombard the brains of travelers - can have such a harmful effect. From what they - the brains of travelers - will be damaged and become "space".
On Earth, we are protected from bombardment by the magnetic field of our planet. The protection extends a little into near-earth space, protecting the crew of the International Space Station (ISS). But on the way to Mars - in outer space - radiation is raging in full force. Its effect was modeled by researchers in experiments on rats.
The rodents were irradiated at the Nasa Space Radiation Laboratory at New York's Brookhaven National Laboratory, and the consequences were monitored at the university under the direction of Dr. Charles Limoli, who coined the term "space brain."
Scientists will assure: high-energy charged particles, traveling at almost the speed of light, affect nerve cells. Not all, of course. But those that fail are enough to cause dementia and memory loss. Scientists observed both that, and another: and directly in the process of irradiation - as if during the flight, and after - as if already on Mars.
It is difficult to expect that people with a "cosmic brain" will be capable of meaningful actions
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“This is bad news for astronauts who will be in outer space for a year or more,” the doctor comments on the results of the experiments. And recommends NASA to invent reliable ways to protect the crew. Otherwise, by the time the astronauts get to Mars, they will forget who they are, where they came from and why. However, the owners of "cosmic brains" will not give a damn about it.
AND THAT IS NOT ALL
It's bad without a magnetic field
The magnetic field can become a serious obstacle in the development of Mars and in flights to it. More precisely, its almost complete absence on spaceships and on the neighboring planet. And without a magnetic field, so familiar on Earth, astronauts and colonists would be threatened with mental disorders - no less than from cosmic radiation. At least in animal experiments, scientists have encountered a similar phenomenon.
Martian conditions were modeled in the course of joint research carried out by specialists from the Research Institute of Biology and Biophysics of Tomsk State University and the Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IBMP) back in 2008. Here, in a special facility, the rats were almost completely isolated from the earth's magnetic field. "On Mars" the animals were only 11 days. But they were enough to make them feel the difference.
According to the leaders of the experiment Natalia Krivova and Kirill Trukhanov, the rats became stupid, lost their social skills, constantly fought, and lost their memory.
Alas, a movie about an astronaut who grew potatoes on Mars could be fantastic.
Russian scientists have not tested how the magnetic field affects reproduction. But the work of their Japanese colleagues showed: without him - fields - freaks are born in newts, up to creatures with two heads.
According to rumors, the absence of a magnetic field was felt even by members of the Apollo 11 expedition not far from Earth during their first visit to the Moon. They say that after returning, Armstrong and Aldrin had a terrible quarrel. They almost beat each other's faces. In a word, they broke down nervously. Almost like rats in Russian experiments.
Perhaps, scientists should now simulate "all the joys" of open space at the same time - both radiation and the absence of a magnetic field. Most likely, the brain will become even more "cosmic". But how much? And how long does it take?
The same Elon Musk, for example, promises to create spaceships that will reach Mars in 30 days. Will it be enough to become an idiot? Or will the flight be more or less safe in terms of the effect on the brain?
REFERENCE
The intensity of the Earth's magnetic field is 50 microtesla. In near-earth space, it is weaker by 20 percent. On Mars - several thousand times weaker, in interplanetary space - tens of thousands of times.
Vladimir LAGOVSKY