Sabrina S. Vander Wiele, Jack T. Felipe, Patricia Thomas2, Catherine M. Davis, Anthony G. Lau
The College of New Jersey, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Therapeutics

Introduction

Human healthcare outside of the Earth’s atmosphere has become a greater concern as humans have lived in the International Space station for over two decades. Solar Particle Events (SPE) will be a concern if space travel evolves away from the Earth’s orbit. SPE is predicted to cause Acute Radiation Syndrome and other unknown health effects [1]. Currently, NASA limits how long young female astronauts are allowed in space because they are considered higher risk for radiation effects. Bone injury risk is different among the sexes and should be considered when studying radiation since scaling male models to female models based on weight alone is not accurate [2]. It is important to study all types of radiation that astronauts can be exposed to and compare the sex differences. Studying the effects of protracted radiation on bones is vital for the healthcare of deep space astronauts. The goal of this study is to analyze bone health in respect to protracted radiation and sex.