NASA’s Galactic Cosmic Ray Simulator – How we study the effects of space radiation on Earth
Earth’s atmosphere and natural magnetic field do a good job protecting us from space radiation. Space radiation is different from radiation on Earth, which mostly comes from isotopes found in rock and soil or from medical procedures like an Xray. Ionizing space radiation comes fr
Selection note: Curated for the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory galactic-cosmic-ray simulator, including its mixed-ion exposure strategy and role in improving ground-based biological risk studies.
Evidence boundary: The journal record is useful method context, but curation did not reproduce beam spectra, exposures, biological analyses, or extrapolation to missions. It is simulator context, not standalone human-risk evidence.
Stable record
ntrs-20230015089
Topic
radiation-environment
Type
Other - Journal article
Publisher
Headquarters
Authors
Lisa Simonsen; Tony Slaba
Year
2023
Editorial state
metadata curated editorial draft
Reviewer
GShips Project editorial synthesis
Official link checked
2026-07-25
Source-supplied abstract
Earth’s atmosphere and natural magnetic field do a good job protecting us from space radiation. Space radiation is different from radiation on Earth, which mostly comes from isotopes found in rock and soil or from medical procedures like an Xray. Ionizing space radiation comes from particles ejected from the Sun, or solar particle events, and from supernovae outside our solar
system making up a background of galactic cosmic radiation. These particles, representing the elements of the periodic table, have been stripped of their electrons as they are accelerated in interstellar space to almost the speed of light. One of NASA’s biggest challenges is protecting astronauts from these high energy particles of galactic cosmic radiation which can cause cancer and other diseases. To understand the biological damage imparted to living systems and to develop protective countermeasures, NASA has built a galactic cosmic ray simulator on Earth.
Abstract text has not been adopted as a GShips conclusion.
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A newer or corrected version, a retraction, a verified duplicate, a material topic mismatch, a changed access state, or claim-level review would trigger a dated editorial update.
The journal record is useful method context, but curation did not reproduce beam spectra, exposures, biological analyses, or extrapolation to missions. It is simulator context, not standalone human-risk evidence.
Source-supplied titles, abstracts, authors, and dates may require correction against the canonical full text.
What would change this page?
A newer or corrected version, retraction, verified duplicate, material topic mismatch, changed access state, or claim-level assessment would change this record.
People, review, and conflicts
Prepared by
GShips Project
Editorial status
metadata-curated-editorial-draft
Editorial reviewer
GShips Project editorial synthesis
Last editorial review
No editorial-review date recorded
Independent review
pending
Independent reviewer
No independent reviewer assigned
Last independent review
No independent-review date exists
Last content edit
Not recorded separately
Official source or link verified
2026-07-25
Declared conflicts
The maintainer intends to explore a commercial venture based on some GShips work. No entity, outside funding, customer, sponsor, or indexed-organization relationship currently exists.