Mars Trip Can Damage Astronauts' Brain

Mars bound astronauts could develop dementia and an uncontrollable sense of dread – dubbed “space brain” – during the journey, scientists have warned. Researchers studied the effects of cosmic rays that would bombard astronauts, and their results pose a significant problem for those wishing to establish a colony on the distant planet. Nasa is actively studying how to send humans to Mars, which is nearly 34 million miles away, and the Netherlands based Mars One group plans to send people there by 2027. Us entrepreneur Elon Musk has also talked about sending people to the planet by 2022. However, an expert in radiation oncology has found that highly charged particles in cosmic rays caused significant long-term brain damage in test rodents, resulting in cognitive impairments and dementia. And the radiation also interfered with the “fear extinction” process, which helps people get over scary or stressful incidents so they can, for example, go swimming again after nearly drowning.

This is not positive news for astronauts deployed on a two to three year round trip to Mars. The space environment poses unique hazards to astronauts. Exposure to these particles can lead to a range of potential central nervous system complications that can occur during, and persist long after, actual space travel – such as various performance decrements, memory deficits, anxiety, depression and impaired decision making. Many of these adverse consequences to cognition may continue and progress throughout life. Alarmingly, the first Martian explorers could also become paranoid during the flight. Deficits in fear extinction could make your prone to anxiety, which could become problematic over the course of a three year trip to and from Mars. While astronauts have lived on the International Space Station for over a year, they have not faced the same level of cosmic rays because it orbits the Earth inside its protective magnetosphere. For mars, areas of the spacecraft could be fitted with extra shielding but it is currently not possible to fully protect the astronauts in this way.