趕往火星？宇宙射線不好惹！
探索區
作者：by Adam Cole
NASA worker： T-minus[倒計時用語] ten， nine， eight...
In November of 2011， the Mars Science Laboratory lifted off[發射]， carrying Curiosity， NASA’s Mars rover[飛行器]， into space.
NASA worker： ...one， main engine start， zero and lift off of Curiosity.
And then in August... Allen Chen （NASA engineer）： Touchdown confirmed[確認]. We’re safe on Mars.
During the eight months in between， Curiosity was bombarded[轟擊] with lots of radiation[輻射]， high-energy protons[質子] thrown out by the sun and
galactic[銀河的] cosmic rays[宇宙射線] slicing[像刀一樣運動]
through the solar system from distant supernovas[超新星]. Here on Earth， the magnetic field and atmosphere[大氣] shield[防護] us from most of this radiation. But out in the void[空間] of space， high-energy particles[粒子] would rip[撕破，割裂] into an astronaut’s DNA， slowly increasing the risk of cancer. That’s a problem for NASA and the handful of other private companies who have pledged[保證] to send humans to Mars.
For a long time， they’ve tried to figure out just how much radiation an astronaut would experience on the journey. Enter Curiosity， handily[方便地] equipped with RAD， the Radiation Assessment[評估] Detector[探測器]. It was designed to gather radiation data on the surface of Mars.
Don Hassler of the Southwest Research Institute leads the RAD team.
Don Hassler： About two years before launch， we started to realize the fact that RAD was tucked[擠進] inside the belly of the spacecraft sort of in the same location that a future astronaut might be.
So they thought： Why not turn it on during space flight？ A few days after launch， RAD powered up and started collecting data. In the journal Science， the researchers announced that the bulk[大量] of the radiation—95 percent—was caused by galactic cosmic rays that we don’t know how to shield against. Hassler says there’s really only one way to minimize the damage caused by these rays.