How do Occupants of the ISS Survive a CME

[RJ Emery]

How do occupants living on board the International Space Station (ISS) survive exposure to solar storms and especially coronal mass ejections?

 

[Antientrophy]

I think there's a special module attached to the station for that purpose kinda like a space bunker or something.

 

[Radrook]

Here are some links and excerpts from websites with additional relevant information about the measures taken to protect astronauts from such life-threatenng radiation.

Implementation of ALARA radiation protection on the ISS through polyethylene shielding augmentation of the Service Module Crew Quarters.
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Source
Radiation Biophysics Group, Wyle Laboratories, Houston, TX 77058, USA. mshavers@ems.jsc.nasa.gov


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15880921

Sickening Solar Flares

Modern spaceships are even safer. "We measure the shielding of our ships in units of areal density--or grams per centimeter-squared," says Cucinotta. Big numbers, which represent thick hulls, are better:
The hull of an Apollo command module rated 7 to 8 g/cm2.
A modern space shuttle has 10 to 11 g/cm2.
The hull of the ISS, in its most heavily shielded areas, has 15 g/cm2.
Future moonbases will have storm shelters made of polyethelene and aluminum possibly exceeding 20 g/cm2.
A typical space suit, meanwhile, has only 0.25 g/cm2, offering little protection. "That's why you want to be indoors when the proton storm hits," says Cucinotta.
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2005/27jan_solarflares/

The Invisible Killers
We have the technology to send astronauts to Mars. But can we return them safely to Earth?
By John F. Ross
Air & Space magazine, January 2006

Bill Anders, an astronaut on Apollo 8 and a retired nuclear engineer, believes that Bush’s vision of future manned exploration “greatly underestimates or ignores the risk of high-energy radiation.” He points out that astronauts can be endangered by a number of sources of radiation: “What’s the point of building a nuclear rocket ship—the only way we’re going to get to Mars—if the astronauts get singed on the way there?”
But Robert Zubrin, independent mission planner and president of the Mars Society, scoffs at concerns over radiation risks. In the trade publication Space News, Zubrin wrote an article entitled “The Great Radiation Hoax,” in which he declared: “Mars mission cosmic radiation doses [are] well within the range of existing spaceflight experience.”
Who’s right? Scientists don’t yet know.


http://www.airspacemag.com/space-exploration/invisible-killers.html

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