The reason is less obvious than you might expect, but equally decisive. The fact that there are fewer female astronauts is due to the fact that the threshold of exposure to space radiation for women is lower than that for men , so it is a health issue that limits the chances of seeing female astronauts in the world. space.
According to NASA, prolonged exposure to cosmic radiation, whether on the surface of some planets or in deep space, increases the chances of developing diseases such as cancer . If we take as an example a possible 1,000-day mission to Mars, the added risk of cancer in men would be between 1 and 19%; in women, this percentage is almost double. Why this percentage is increased in women is simple: because they have organs that are sensitive to this disease, such as the ovaries and breasts. This fact makes it imperative to limit the space missions in which female astronauts can participate.
To alleviate this problem, the European Union launched a new project in January 2013, called Space Radiation Superconductive Shield (SR2S), which aims to solve the problem of protection against space radiation for all astronauts, without having the sex counts. The project aims to build a superconducting shield that will create a magnetic field around the spacecraft. This magnetic field will be 3,000 times higher than that of planet Earth and will be able to deflect ionizing particles.
Among the organizations involved in SR2S are the National Institute of Nuclear Physics of Italy (INFN), CERN of Switzerland or the Commission for Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies of France (CEA).
