Protecting astronauts
from cosmic radiation is one of the key challenges facing future missions to
Mars, and NASA believes it may have a solution. The space
agency, which is planning to send explorers to the red planet in the 2030s, is
considering the use of drugs that alter the DNA code of its crews.
This could repair any
damage sustained from the high energy particles that will bombard the bodies of
'Marsonauts', giving rise to greater risks of cancer and other diseases. NASA’s
acting chief technologist, Dr Douglas Terrier, made the comments ahead of an
appearance at the Codex innovation summit, held in London.
One of the techniques
currently under development that it is following is NMN, a compound expected to
enter clinical trials after it was shown to rejuvenate elderly mice in
laboratory tests.
It is also considering
making more advanced tweaks or alterations to the DNA of its astronauts,
although the moral implications of such a radical step will need to be
addressed. This includes epigenetic modifications, which alter the way genes
are read by the body without making changes to the underlying DNA code.
Using such a technique would
allow Nasa's scientists to turn up the volume on one genetic instruction or
mute another. This may help to prevent cancers, dementia and other radiation
related illnesses from developing, as well as boosting the body's resilience to
its effects. Speaking to The Times, Dr Terrier said: 'We’re looking at a range
of things.
'From drug therapies, and
those seem to be quite promising, to more extreme things like epigenetic
modification all the way to manipulation.
'I think those have a lot of
ethical consequences so they’re still in the experimental thought stages.' Space
is home to particle radiation which has sufficient energy to collide violently
with the nuclei that make up shielding and human tissue.
These collisions, known as
nuclear collisions, can then give rise to new particles as the incoming
radiation and shielding nuclei break up. It can also damage the DNA of human
cell, giving rise to diseases like cancer and dementia. Here on Earth, the
planet's magnetic field protects us from most of these particles, but
astronauts will spend potentially years exposed to them.
Other protective measures
proposed include armoured suits, shielded plating and electromagnetic force
fields, but these are unlikely to prove practical. NASA is also considering the
use of an artificial intelligence programme able to diagnose diseases and
perform robotic surgery in space.
Via DailyMail