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8SCIENCE REPORTER, JULY 2011
Cover S
tory
N.S. ARUN KUMAR
ANNA Akimovna Takhtarov and her
granddaughter Rita were alone on
the freshly plowed field in the village
of Smelovka, then part of the Soviet Union.
Nothing special was there for them on that
day. It was 12th April 1960 and they were
engaged in their collective farm in the
serene air of inland beauty, with only a
cow grazing nearby adding to its inlay of
peasantry.
It was about quarter to 11 in the
morning, the Sun rather reluctantly blazing
its intaglios on the field. Suddenly they
The year 2011 marks the fiftieth anniversary of thehistoric flight into space by Yuri Gagarin—the firstman to take a peek into the mysteries of outer space.
Here’s a look at how he made it to the top.
were alerted by a loud noise from a
distance. Looking around they could not
understand what had happened. Anna
was about to return to her work when Rita
pulled her hand in bewilderment, pointing
to the sky. A man-like creature with his
head and body covered in white apparel
was seen coming down, in flying colours
of wind-blown parachute.
Rita was thinking of her first encounter
with an ET but Anna was urging her to leave
that place, when the fall ing creature
removed its head-cover and greeted in
Russian: “Hey, Don’t run away! I am one
among us!” They were startled and before
they could react they saw a tractor crossing
the field followed by a group of running
soldiers. The man from the tractor
introduced himself as Major Akhmed
Gasiyer and said: Good Morning. This is
Yuri Gagarin, our comrade and the first
man in space. You are the first to witness
him landing from his mission. The nation
will be proud of you!”
That moment of glory was not only for
them, but also for the whole world
because he was the first visitor from Earth
to the “other world” which he saw with a
beating heart! A new word had entered
the dictionary of the world – “cosmonaut!”
This year in 2011, the world of Space
Exploration is celebrating the 50 th
anniversary of this still yet unparalleled
achievement of mankind.
Gagarin’s leap above the Earth was
a great blow to American nationalism
following soon after the Soviet success with
Sputnik—the first man-made object
launched into space. It also helped USSR
to create the imagery of the most
advanced and progressive nation in the
world.
Farm Boy From MoscowGagarin was born on 9 March 1934 in a
village called Klushino, 100 miles west of
Moscow in the Smolensk region of Russia.
His Father Alexei Ivanovich was a farmer
working in a collective farm. Anna
Timofeyana, his mother was a milkmaid.
Gagarin was the third of four children,
Velentin and Boris, the brothers and Zoya,
the sister.
During the Second World War, the
German army occupied his vi l lage,
throwing his family out of their home and
Launch of Vostokthat carried Gagarin
Limited edition pen brought out in honourof the fiftieth anniversary of Yuri Gagarin
9 SCIENCE REPORTER, JULY 2011
CoverCoverCoverCoverCover Story
abducted his brother and sister for slavery
in Nazi camps. Gagarin helped his parents
to dig a dugout and they lived there until
the war was over. But these struggles
captured much of his time and so he was
very poorly educated. Only after the war
he could become a regular school-going
boy and with the help of two volunteer
teachers he managed to give it a ‘dolphin-
dive’.
Gagarin dreamt of becoming a
fighter pilot even from his childhood when
he saw a Russian fighter plane crash land
in a farm field near his home. It was with
bullet-ridden wings, just returning from the
battlefield. The pilots who emerged from
the plane made an elegant appearance,
quite impressive enough in their uniform
laden with medals and other adornments.
Moreover, one of his teachers at school
was also an ex-air force pilot who became
a great inspiration for young Gagarin. The
teacher helped him to seek the right
qualifications leading to the Pilot Training
Academy, opting the four-year study at
the technical High School in Saratov.
While there, he was offered a chance
to join the “Flying Club” at school, his dream
becoming true. He learned to fly a light
aircraft, taking his first solo flight in 1955. He
seemed to have an innate ability to handle
an aeroplane and a special skill to make
smooth landings. He also learned
parachuting there but his instructor Dmitry
Pavlovich Martyanov remembers him
clinging to the door of the plane, out of
fear, during his first jump. “Dont dither Yuri!
The girls are watching” – he had to say to
make Gagarin finally jump with his eyes
closed!
Dmitry Martyanov was very fond of
Gagarin and he advised Yuri to join the
Military Aviation School at Orenburg. There
his training was to Fly MiG-15 planes. In
1957, Gagarin graduated with top honours
from there. The same day he also got
married to Valentina Ivanovna Goryacheva
whom he met while in Orenburg.
Gagarin’s exceptional aviation skills
made him a fighter pilot at the Arctic Circle
where he was assigned as an experimental
aviator amidst the challenging weather
conditions. His first posting was in Luostari
Airbase in Murmansk Oblast close to the
Norwegian border. It was in light of the
magnificent Aurora Borealis that he made
his first flight.
By then, the Soviet Space Programme
was once again in media highlights, this
time for photographing the yet unseen far
side of the Moon. Khrushchev had already
stated that USSR’s next achievement would
be a manned mission to space. Gagarin
couldn’t wait any longer. He returned to
Moscow and submitted a request to be
considered for ‘cosmonaut’ training. The
authorit ies were shocked to read it
because rather than a delightful dream of
Krushchev, nothing in real sense was
envisaged or executed.
However, the day that followed
Gagarin’s application, two representatives
of the top-secret military unit known by
the codename ‘26266’ visited Gagarin’s
residence for discussing the matter.
Later, the 26266-unit became the
‘Cosmonauts Training Center’ established
by order of the Air Force Commander-in-
THELEGACY OF
YURI GAGARIN
50TH
ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRSTMAN IN SPACE
World
Cosmonautics
Day
April 12, the date of
Gagarin’s historic flight to
space, is celebrated as the
World Cosmonautics Day.
The recommendation for
this was made by Gherman
Titov, in a letter sent to
CPSU on 26 March 1962.
THELEGACY OF
YURI GAGARIN
50TH
ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRSTMAN IN SPACE
YuriGagarin—the spacehero
Let’s salute this Russian Icarus at the 50th anniversary of his greatachievement, opening a new vista to the world of spacethat was never known before.
Model of Vostok that tookYuri into space
10SCIENCE REPORTER, JULY 2011
Cover Story
Chief in March 1960 with Colonel Yevgenly
Anatolyevich Karpov as its chief. There was
also an assistant to him who was designated
as the “Director” of the center, Lieutenant
General Nikolay Petrovich Kamanin.
The Making of a CosmonautThe cosmonaut selection was officially
based on two top-secret decrees issued
by the USSR Council of Ministers. The process
of selection had begun much before the
functioning of the Cosmonaut Training
Center. The cosmonaut candidates were
nature might have helped him beyond
other particularit ies, his biographers
comment. Criteria of moral and ethical
characterist ics and psychological
particularit ies were also there, again
whitt l ing the number of cosmonaut
candidates down to 206 and then to a
final list of 20.
The oldest among these was 35 and
the youngest 25 (Gherman Titov). Gagarin
was 26 with two others of the same age.
They were flown to the Cosmonaut Training
Center in the future “Star City” which was in
the middle of a vast emptiness in the
Eurasian steppe called Tiura-Tam. It was
named after a small railway station “which
was hard to reach by any means of
transport including camel and donkey,
“Gagarin’s Gazebo”
“Gagarin’s Gazebo” was the veranda of a secret building officially designated as “building zero” within the ‘StarCity’ where the first (informal) announcement of Gagarin being the “first man in space” was made. “Building zero”was on the banks of River Syr Darya, which remained as the actual location of Baikonur Cosmodrome, though its
co-ordinates (460N, 630E) were a military secret for long.Until 1970s, the Soviets erected plywood facades of a
Potemkin village about 250 miles from here, to create theillusion of “Baikonur Cosmodrome”. On 10th April 1961, tableswere laid out on the veranda of the “building zero” and aselect group of 25 top officials gathered there, including sixfuture cosmonauts. Gagarin and GhermanTitov were amongthem.
It was Chief Designer Sergey Korolev who spoke veryplainly: “We have six cosmonauts here… and it has been decidedthat Gagarin will fly first… We wish you success, YuryAlekseyerich!” And Gagarin’s reply-speech also was simplebut quite charming: “Yes, you have made the right choice!” –but Gagarin states in his memoirs that upon hearing abouthis selection, his wife’s response was “Why You?” andGagarin says he had to talk one full night to make her say,“if you are sure of yourself, go, everything will be all right!”
brought in groups to the Central Military
Scientific Research Aviation Hospital near
Moscow to undergo a battery of extensive
physical, psychological and medical
examinations. Initially there were 3,461
candidates, reduced to just 347 after the
first screening.
The physical parameters were a
height of 5 feet 6-7 inches (172-174 cm)
and body weight of 70-75 kilograms but
curiously enough Gagarin did get through
with a height of 5 feet 2 inches! Gagarin’s
professional suitability and volunteering
Gherman Titov (left, the second person to orbit Earth) and Yuri Gagarin (right), 1962
Stampsissued inhonour ofYuriGagarin’shistoric flight
11 SCIENCE REPORTER, JULY 2011
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Story
with no water and lot of sand,” as described
by an engineer, “ i t was a place of
scorching heat and bone-chilling cold with
swarms of rats, lizards and scorpions as
numerous as KGB informants.” In those days
there were a dozen launch pads scattered
around the ‘cosmodrome’ but it was not
‘Baikonur’ as many have erroneously
referred to it, the latter now in Kazakhstan.
In the real sense, the cosmonauts
were treated as lab-rats subjecting each
of them to the widest possible number of
distractions probing the boundaries of
human endurance. The concocted
training regime consisted of physiologists,
psychologists, physicians of various
specializations and engineers. As one
cosmonaut remembers, “they seemed to
be testing the hypothesis that human body
and mind could adapt to any situation.”
One test was to solve diff icult
mathematical equations while sitting in a
room where loudspeakers produced noise
at the extreme pitch. Another was the
‘Vibration Stand’, which could “not only
knock your soul out of you, but also the
stones from your kidney.” The most
dreaded device was the ‘Rotor’—a
centrifuge that simulated the effects of
extreme gravitational pull. It had the shape
of a spherical cage spun wildly along the
three axes at unimaginable speed (this
element of training was avoided after
Gagarin’s flight, apparently because it was
considered a torture!).
A testing time for human psyche was
the “publichnost odinochestva”, a facility
that allowed a person in isolation to be
viewed in every possible way whereas the
‘captive’ couldn’t see the watchers. The
isolation chamber prevented every sound
from the outside except for some
directions from the watchers that
appeared in the form of blinking of
coloured bulbs or codes. The cosmonaut
in the chamber was not allowed to
communicate through sound, but through
some buttons upon a console that were
assigned for specific purposes.
Gagarin was in isolation chamber
from July 26 to August 5. Then he entered
the ‘Heat Chamber’ where the inmates
were subjected to extremes of
temperature which was reflected back
again and again from the walls coated
with metal plates. Humidity also was
increased and this ordeal lasted from 30
minutes to 3 hours or until the cosmonaut
said he could not endure it anymore,
though such reluctance was not favoured
by the trainers. The last part of the training
was parachute-jumping which was
performed from a height of nearly 4
kilometers, during day and night.
The Final TwoEventually, after the entire set of training
schedules, it became a tale of two
cosmonauts – Gagarin and Gherman Titov.
They were the final sort from the cream of
six selected by the Director Nikolay
Kamanin by the end of January 1961.
Among the six, five including Gagarin were
ethnic Russians with one being a Ukrainian.
Kamanin was well aware of the fact that
the first cosmonaut would achieve instant
fame and so he went for an honest “Russian
Face,” and the search ended in Gagarin.
He had “a smile that never left his
face, deep blue eyes and kindness that
seemed pouring from his eyes” – Aleksei
Leonov wrote later. Gherman Titov was
equally competent, coming from the
Stalingrad Military Aviation School, but it is
said that it was his name that ruined his
chance. Gagarin’s name was indisputably
Autobiography of
Gagarin
It is not a well-known fact thatGagarin has an autobiography.Gagarin’s recollections about his lifewere compiled and published asDoroga V Kosmos: zapiski letchika-komonavta sssr edited by N. Denisovand S. Borzenko. It came out in 1961with Pravda as publishers. AnEnglish Edition came out under thename Road to Space: Notes of a Pilot-Cosmonaut in 1962.
The biographies of Gagarin alsoare a rare find. One that seems mostauthentic is The First Manned SpaceFlight: Russia’s Quest for Spacewritten by Vladimir Suvorov whowas official cameraman workingunder the Mosnauchfilmdocumentary film division of USSR.It was co-authored by AlexanderSebelnikov and published by NovaScience publishers, New York in1997.
In 1995, Enslow Publishersbrought out another title withMichael D. Cole as the author:Vostok 1: First Human in Space.Bloombury’s 1998 title Starman: TheTruth Behind the Legend of YuriGagarin was controversial revealingsome Soviet secrets andpropagandas though the authorsJamie Doran and Piers Bizony arenot considered to be space-historians. A 50th anniversaryedition of this is now on the stands.
The boy who would oneday fly out into space
Gagarin dreamtof becoming afighter pilot
from his childhood afterseeing a Russian fighter plane crash
12SCIENCE REPORTER, JULY 2011
Cover Story
Russian whereas Gherman Titov suggested
a German l ineage. Actually it was a
derivative of “Saint Germanus” though it
appeared ‘German’ in pronunciation.
According to legend, when
Khrushchev was shown the names of the
two final candidates, he asked: “What kind
of Russian is this with a German name,
where did you dig him up?” The remaining
obstacle for Gagarin to become the first
cosmonaut was an argument by the Soviet
Rocket Pioneer Sergei Korolov. He wanted
the first cosmonaut to be an Engineering
graduate, so that he could more
‘technically adapt’ himself to space travel.
However, in the later phase of discussions
regarding manned space fl ight, the
vehicle was decided to be ful ly
automated, rendering the cosmonaut to
be a passive traveller.
Then the parameters of psychological
preparedness and experience in flight
were considered, which favoured Gagarin
at its best. Titov was younger by an year
than Gagarin (he was 25 then) and it
counted towards the period of
experience. Above all, it was not an
honour, but a sacrifice where there was
only a 50% chance of survival. There were
records of many botched space flights
throughout 1960 and a launch-pad
explosion that killed 126 people. Kamanin’s
posthumously published diaries revealed
that he had been reserving Titov for later
flights, less complicated than Gagarin’s.
The Heroic FlightIt is not a surprise that Gagarin knew about
the dangers of his mission. In a letter written
from the Cosmodrome to his wife, Valya,
he asked her to remarry if the launching
experiment turned fatal. He had also asked
her to raise their little daughters “not as
princesses but as real people.”
On April 7, Gagarin and Titov had to
sit in the spacecraft readied for flight in full
suit as proposed by engineers. Around the
same time, the spacecraft was weighed,
revealing that the vehicle had reached its
top limit of mass allowed. With Gagarin, it
weighed 4,725 kilograms. So, proposals
were put forward to launch Titov who was
slightly lighter than Gagarin, but Korolov
didn’t like any change in schedule and it
went on unchanged.
On the evening of April 10, a “Flight
Assignment” was decided for Gagarin.
According to Moscow Time, it had a time
frame of one hour 37 minutes, starting from
9:07 to 10:44 in the morning hours of April
12. Titov was the back-up for Gagarin in
the launching schedule and they were
given a final technical briefing on the 11th.
At 5.30 in the morning of April 12, both
of them were awakened, given their
“space food” along with their routine
medical checkups. Gagarin remained
cool with a pulse-rate of 64 beats in a
minute. By about 6.30, the dressing up of
Titov and Gagarin began. The spacesuit
had heat-insulation layers causing body
temperatures to rise, so Gagarin was
dressed after Titov, to reduce his time inside
the suit. Then Gagarin spent a few minutes
in the “test-seat,” when technicians
checked ventilation and other systems of
the spacesuit.
The rocket with the payload vehicle
was by then ready at “Site 2” which was a
SL-3 variant of the SS-6 Sapwood Rocket
with a height of 38.36 meters. It had three
stages, the first stage with four breakaway
boosters with a total weight of 286.03
tonnes. The module for Gagarin’s travel,
named the Vostok 1, was mounted on to
the top of the “instrument module”
containing the engine system providing
102,000 kg of thrust. Basically it meant
that Gagarin was destined to sit “on the
top of a tin-can placed on the top of a
bomb”.
Gagarin’s Hero
During the late 1950s and early 1960s, there was a significant looseningof social and cultural restrictions in the USSR. Historians popularlyreferring to it as the “Khrushchev Thaw” which allowed previously censoredmedia of entertainments like television, radio, cinema and books from the“other world”. It was during this period of transformation that Gagaringrew up and he was interested in many classic literature works recentlytranslated into Russian.
His favourite was the American writer Ernest Hemingway who hadalready created a ‘Hemingway Cult’ complementing the conceptions ofRussian masculinity. Aleksei Leonov, one among the final twenty cosmonautcandidates remembers that when he first met Gagarin, he was loungingon a sofa reading The Old Man and the Sea. Gagarin loved Hemingwaybecause “he lived as he wished: hunted, fished, braved open sea, loved numerouswomen and was loved by them in return. He was romantic but not starry eyed,manly but not crude”.
Yuri Gagarin Memorial Plaque – presented to the USSR on 21 January 1971
On April 7, Gagarin and Titovhad to sit in the spacecraft
readied for flight in fullsuit as proposed byengineers.
13 SCIENCE REPORTER, JULY 2011
Cover Story
After spending a few more minutes
with Titov and colleagues Gagarin left for
“Site 2” where he was taken by an elevator
to the top of the Rocket. The launch vessel
was a small one-manned spherical
module with a diameter of 2.3 meters.
Before boarding it, Gagarin saw Sergei
Korolov looking haggard after a sleepless
night. Gagarin was a favourite of Korolev.
Gagarin’s trainer Ivanovsky was also there
who helped Gagarin up the ladder and
into the module.
Ivanovsky whispered into his ear that
‘1:2:5’ code should be used in case the
vehicle needed manual control, under
emergency situations. It was already given
to Gagarin in a sealed envelope asking to
be opened only in case of danger, but
Ivanovsky was not sure whether Gagarin
would be doing it in any such kind of
situation. When Gagarin sat up in his seat,
he was strapped to it and the hatch was
closed. However, the hatch didn’t close
hermetically. It was a “one time-one way”
hatch, so Ivanovsky with the help of a fitter,
removed all the 32 screws sealing the
hatch and putting them back at a frantic
pace, which became a reward-claim for
the fitter V.I. Morozov, later on.
Despite this intervention, the rocket
blasted off nearly as per schedule at
09:06:59.7, Moscow Time. There was a
problem with the second stage of the
Rocket causing it to burn longer than
scheduled, raising the spacecraft to a 327
km apogee orbit, instead of the planned
230 km. Gagarin was however not aware
of this and communicated his greetings to
the ground station also spending a few
seconds with his flight journal. But, due to
weightlessness, the journal floated on his
back without the pencil (which was
attached to it with a string) forcing him to
use the voice recorder. However, it was
on automatic mode, already working
without any useful data recorded, so
Gagarin rewound it and tried recording
again, apparently erasing some previous
data.
Home! Sweet Home!More than 500 humans have now travelled
into space and have watched our home
planet from there, but Gagarin was the
first man to see it. As he began orbiting the
Earth, he tasted food and gazed at the
Earth flying below. “There was a good view
of the Earth which had a very distinct and
pretty blue halo. It had a smooth transition
from pale blue, blue, dark blue, violet and
absolute black! It was a magnificent
picture...” Gagarin’s official statement after
flight read. He also added – “People of
the world, let’s safeguard and enhance
this beauty, not destroying it!”
Then it was the time to descend and
Gagarin expected the 40 second burn of
the braking engine, as per the schedule.
But, there was a problem. As the burning
of the braking engine was about to begin,
a single valve within it failed to close
completely, letting some fuel escape into
the combustion chamber. Since
everything was ful ly automatic, this
prevented the main engine from cutting
off and it burned to empty all of its
remaining fuel.
At the same time, the pressurised
oxidizer continued escaping through the
steering thrusters, causing the rocket to spin
Gagarin And Valya
Gagarin met Valya (Valentina Ivanova Goryacheva) at a dance programmewhile attending the military flight training at the Orenburg Aviation School.Valya was a nursing student, lovely and shy, the youngest of six childrenin her family. Together they enjoyed reading Victor Hugo and Charles Dickensand to her great surprise Gagarin even brought the works of KonstantinTsiolkovsky, the Russian rocket pioneer.
They discussed everything they read, Valya commenting to her mother“he has sharpened his teeth on the granite of science. I think, he will be going toschool all his life!” When there was news of Sputnik’s historical flight andKhrushchev’s announcement of sending a man to space, Gagarin whisperedto her ears that it would be none other than himself. On27 October 1957 Gagarin married Valya in his new officer’s greatcoat becauseit was on the same day he graduated with top ranking honours fromOrenburg.
They had two daughters. Elena is the chief keeper of Kremlin museumsnow and younger daughter Galya teaches economics at Moscow University.
wildly around its axis at about 30 degree
per second. This was eventually stopped
when the preset-timer cut off the engine.
Ten minutes after the scheduled time the
module plunged into the atmosphere of
earth. At about 7 kilometers from Earth,
Gagarin prepared to eject from the
module. The main hatch was jettisoned
and he ejected with two parachutes, one
secured as back up. He landed safely onto
a field near the Volga River—a farmer ’s
wife and her granddaughter were witness
to it.
Hero of the WorldGagarin’s travel to space lasted only for
108 minutes, but that was enough for him
to become the national hero of Soviet
Union and of the World. In the official Soviet
documents, however, there is no mention
Yuri Gagarin with his wife and daughter
of Gagarin jumping with the parachute and
the details about Gagarin’s landing were
not known to the world for a long time, till
the “iron-curtain” fell.
When local newspapers tried to make
stories of Anna Akimovna and her
granddaughter seeing Gagarin’s descent,
KGB officials went to their office and
blocked it. This was because as per the
prevailing international rules on aviation
then, the pilot “should have to remain in
FRED and Matroksha (also knownas Phantom Torso) are mannequinsdeveloped by NASA (NationalAeronautics and SpaceAdministration) and ESA (EuropeanSpace Agency) respectively.
They are armless, legless,human-shaped torsos wrapped inbandages and sent to the ISS(International Space Station) tomimic the effects of radiation andother outer-space phenomenon onthe human body. Matroksha recentlycompleted his four months at the ISScollecting data from the radiationbombarded on its body. The studiesconducted on these torsos willgreatly affect NASA’s plan to set upa manned out-post on the Moon andfuture man-trip to Mars.
One of the critical challengesin sending humans on theseextended missions is to protectastronauts from the harmfulradiation present in outer space. Weknow that our atmosphere filters outthe harmful radiation emitted fromthe Sun and other inhabitants of theuniverse like supernova and giantstars, before it reaches the surfaceof the Earth.
Information regarding theamount of radiation present in outerspace and the amount that humanbody actually absorbs is required todesign an appropriate spacesuit forthe astronauts. This informationbecomes more critical for longduration space missions such as aMars trip. Several computer modelshave being developed over the years
the craft, from launch to landing.” This rule,
if applied to Gagarin’s flight, would have
disqualified him as being “the first traveller
in space.”
Nevertheless, Gagarin’s historic
launch into space and return was the
news-headline all over the world. He was
awarded the official title of “Hero of the
Soviet Union” and got double promotion
to the rank of a major. After his flight,
Gagarin spent almost a year travelling all
over the world with his wife Valya, as a living
icon of Soviet achievement. He visited
Czechoslovakia, Finland, England, Iceland,
Brazil, Canada, Hungary, France, Cuba,
Afghanistan, India and Sri Lanka.
Cover Story
Yuri Gagarin was an inspiration for the younger generation of his time
That moment of glory wasnot only for them, but alsofor the whole worldbecause he was the firstvisitor from Earth to the“other world” which he sawwith a beating heart!
14SCIENCE REPORTER, JULY 2011
by space agencies to simulate thespace environment and estimationsare performed to calculate theradiation amount but actuallycollecting the radiation informationfrom a torso present at ISS would be amuch more efficient way to getrealistic numbers. This informationwill also validate the existingcomputer codes and guide indeveloping new ones to predict theradiation amount and effects.
To simulate the effect of radiationon human body, several hundredradiation sensors are embedded inFred and Matroksha’s bodies and theyare exposed to the radiation at ISS insimilar situations as an astronaut willbe on a real space mission. NASAscientists have analyzed the resultsobtained from these sensors and havefound that the computer models areactually quite good and are accurateto within 10% of the measuredamount.
One of the most dangerous kindsof radiation present in space is GCR(Galactic Cosmic Rays). They enter thesolar system from outside (distantsupernovas) and travel nearly thespeed of light. They are chargesparticles made up of bare nuclei ofboth light and heavy metals and canaffect/damage human cells.Traditional radiation shielding cannotstop GCR particles. The amount ofradiation that actually reaches thevital organs of the astronauts shouldbe estimated to ensure propershielding. The radiation has to pass
the spacecraft walls, the spacesuits,and the human body skin before theycan damage the organs. There is alsosecondary radiation resulting from thecollision of charged particles with abarrier that needs to be considered.
Another factor affecting thehealth of the astronauts is the “solarflare” that can suddenly erupt from asunspot, regions of high magneticactivity and reduced surfacetemperature. The solar flarescomprise of radiation including allwavelengths across theelectromagnetic spectrum from radioto gamma rays. Energetic protons arereleased that can penetrate throughthe human body causing biochemicaldamage. One of the most powerfulsolar flares was observed in September1859. The flare was visible to thenaked eye and produced spectacularauroras down to tropical latitudesuntil Hawaii (USA). Tests need to beconducted on Matroksha bybombarding it with high-energyprotons to simulate the effect of solarflares on astronauts during inter-planetary missions.
The torsos are made up of specialplastic that mimics the density of thehuman body, sliced horizontally into35 1-inch-thick layers. Within theselayers sensors are embedded tomeasure the amount of radiation. Fredand Matroksha also contain specialsensors at the location of the vitalorgans such as brain, heart, stomachetc. to simulate the effect of radiationon the vital organs of humans.
There are certain limitations onthe amount of shielding that can beprovided to the astronauts. There isa weight constraint on the spacecraftas well as on the thickness of thespacesuits. Therefore, bettermaterials need to be developed toprovide required shielding fromcosmic radiation on long durationspace missions. The effects of highamount of radiation for a short periodof time versus low doses for anextended period also need to bestudied.
Matroksha also has actual humanblood cells put in small tubes insidethe stomach and some other placesnear the surface. There are smallsegments of bone marrow inside thetorso. The effects of radiation on theblood cells well inside the surfaceand near the surface are studied todetermine the possibility of havingleukemia or other types of cancer dueto the exposure. The effect ofradiation on the DNA of the cell isstudied and if the radiation breaksthe DNA sequence in several cellsin a short amount of time, there is afair chance that the cell will becomecancerous. The cells cannot repair alarge amount of DNA breaks in ashort period. These tests can berepeated as desired.
Ms Swati Saxena is currently pursuing PhD inAerospace Engineering from the Pennsylvania
State University, State College, PA, USA.Address: Swati Saxena c/o Dr. Ashok Saxena,
204, Narain Towers, Sanjay Place, Agra-282002
Enjoying the Space Rides
After returning from the world-tour he
became actively involved in training his
comrades for flight and was deservedly
made the Deputy Chief of Cosmonaut
Training. In 1967, he began training for the
first Soyuz flight, becoming the back-up
pilot for Vladimir Komarov who died in a
fatal crash. By then, Soviet officials tried to
keep him away from any further flights but
Gagarin wanted to reach for the skies
once again. That dream remained
unfulfilled as Gagarin was killed in a MiG-
jet crash on 27 March 1968, at the age of
34.
It was a very sad event for Soviet Union
and for the whole world, though the actual
reason behind the accident was never
revealed or found out. The grief from his
death crossed the battlefield of the Cold
War as well. It is well documented by the
plaque left on Moon by the Apollo 15
mission in memory of Gagarin. Let’s also
salute this Russian Icarus on the 50 th
anniversary of his great achievement,
opening a new vista to the world of space
that was never known before.
Mr N.S. Arun Kumar is Editorial Assistant, KeralaState Institute for Children’s Literature, SanskritCollege Campus, Palayam, Thiruvananthapuram,Kerala-695034
Cover Story
During the Second WorldWar, the German armyoccupied his village,throwing his family out oftheir home and abductedhis brother and sister forslavery in Nazi camps.Gagarin helped his parentsto dig a dugout and theylived there until the war wasover.
15 SCIENCE REPORTER, JULY 2011
