The Van Allen Radiation Belt And The Moon Missions.
One of the most hotly contested procedures during the Apollo missions was how NASA dealt with the issue of Van Allen belts . The naturally-occurring belts of radiation that's surround the earth both on the journey to the moon and also returning from it. Van Allen belts. To some this just proves the point that NASA never went to the moon because they contest that if the crew went through the Van Allen belts they would have received a lethal dose of radiation and died during or shortly afterwards. But as we know that didn't happen so how did NASA achieve this? Cutaway drawing of two radiation belts around Earth: the inner belt (red) dominated by protons and the outer one (blue) by electrons. Image Credit: NASA. Mention the word "radiation" and most people think of x-ray,s the atom bomb Hiroshima, Chernobyl and therefore associated with bad things. Yes, you do need thick lead shielding to protect against high-intensity x-rays but t...