A Weapon Against Space Radiation

Is it that bleak?

I mean he’s not wrong.

There are new dangers for us outside of our atmosphere.

NASA knows a thing or two about those dangers and summed them up in a nifty acronym:

RIDGE

• Space Radiation

• Isolation & Confinement

• Distance from Earth

• Gravity Fields

• Hostile/Closed Environments

But there are weapons in our culinary arsenal useful against those dangers.

Let’s take a look at that space radiation.

Space Radiation

Every day Earth gets smacked with around 1.2 × 10¹⁴ watts of energy. That’s enough to power 11 million average American households.

Using Einstein’s special relativity theory (obviously) that’s roughly 4.82×10⁶kg smacking Earth in the face.

For my Americans, that’s like 64,267 washing machines coming at us on the daily.

Now…

Earth’s magnetic field prevents a good chunk of that from getting to us on the surface. Our atmosphere absorbs, deflects and scatters most of the rest.

Together they shield us from anywhere between 10-100% of that energy depending on the weather.

But out in space…

bye bye, atmosphere. Bye bye, magnetic field.

Effects

Even with that 10% that slips through, it still packs a nasty punch.

Radiation knocks out pieces of our DNA leading to degenerative diseases.

• Parkinson’s

• Huntington’s

• Multiple sclerosis

• Various types of arthritis

• The most infamous being cancer

• Just to name a few

You see why radiation is a big baddie?

Food to the rescue

Now we can’t wrap ourselves in banana leaves to fight off radiation. But certain foods will help us from the inside allowing the body to repair itself more efficiently.

I anticipate these foods playing frequent roles on our space faring menus.

They’ve got a secret weapon.

Here’s what it is…

The weapon

Anthocyanin.

Anthocyanin is an antioxidant that hunts for free radicals in the body and whoops their- you get the idea. It’s the pigment colouring food in shades of red, purple and blue:

• Berries

• Red cabbage

• Tomatoes

• Black carrots

• Beets

• You name it

They also have a wide range of other benefits for the body. Which are…

• Reducing inflammation

• Protecting against Type 2 Diabetes

• Boosting heart health

• Reducing blood pressure

• Improving memory

• Increasing your brain’s processing speed

• A few others being tested

In the battle against the effects of radiation in space, they’re going to make some frequent appearances.

TL;DR

Radiation bad.

Foods rich in anthocyanin good.

PS. In the next email we’ll talk about another secret weapon that I predict will make appearances on space station menus.