Space: hazardous to your health
Radiation exposure harms the human body and is another danger astronauts who journey to the Moon and beyond will face.
Missions to and extended stays on the Moon and Mars will place astronauts beyond our planet's magnetosphere, which shields life on Earth from harmful space radiation. Safeguarding astronauts' health will be crucial to mission success because radiation sickness can be debilitating, and even deadly. What happens to the human body depends on the type, duration, and amount, or dose, of radiation.