To get to the moon, a spacecraft needs to be travelling quickly to climb far enough away from the Earth such that it can be captured by the moon’s gravity. So how did NASA solve the problem of crossing the Van Allen belts? The short answer is they didn’t. These “ Van Allen belts” comprise an inner and outer torus of electrically charged particles.

The Earth’s strong magnetic field forms the magnetosphere, a protective bubble that diverts most dangerous radiation away, while the Earth’s thick atmosphere absorbs the rest.īut above the atmosphere, the magnetosphere traps energetic subatomic particles in two radiation regions. On Earth, we are protected from most of this ionising radiation. Galactic cosmic rays are high energy, electrically charged atomic fragments that travel at nearly the speed of light and arrive from all directions in space. Potentially dangerous radiation in space also originates from outside our solar system. These events can pose a hazard to astronauts and their equipment even at distances as far from the sun as Earth, the moon and Mars. Occasionally, enormous explosions on the solar surface known as solar flares release massive amounts of X-rays and gamma rays into space, as well as energetic electrons and protons (which make up the atomic nucleus along with neutrons). The sun continuously pours out electromagnetic radiation across all wavelengths – especially as visible, infrared and ultraviolet radiation. There are a several sources of ionising radiation in space. To the moon and beyond is a new podcast series from The Conversation marking the 50th anniversary of the moon landings. Worryingly, when high energy (ionising) radiation encounters matter, it can cause changes at the atomic level, including in our bodies. Meanwhile, other varieties of radiation such as radio waves, X-rays and gamma rays are not visible and require special equipment to be observed. Humans can perceive some forms of electromagnetic radiation: visible light can be seen and infrared radiation (heat) can be felt. The term “radiation” is used to describe energy that is emitted in the form of electromagnetic waves and/or particles. There is potentially harmful radiation in space. One perennial anomaly pointed to by moon landing deniers is that the Apollo astronauts could never have survived their passage of two belts of intense radiation partly surrounding the Earth at heights of several thousand kilometres.Īlthough some fairly straightforward physics can dispense with the idea of a barrier of deadly radiation imprisoning us on our planet, like all good conspiracy theories it is built on a kernel of truth. As the 50th anniversary of humankind’s first moon landing approaches, the conspiracy theories that claim the Apollo missions were a hoax refuse to die.

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