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On Monday, NASA officially opened an application window for the next generation of American astronauts it hopes to send to the International Space Station, lunar orbit and eventually to Mars. But to find the best candidates for dealing with the harsh levels of radiation in space and on the Red Planet, the agency may want to consider looking beyond the borders of the United States for applicants.
[...] For years now, scientists have been studying residents of Ramsar, a town in northern Iran that is believed to have the highest levels of naturally occurring background radiation for an inhabited area. Levels up to 80 times the world average (PDF) have been measured in town, yet studies of the few thousand people living in the area show rates of lung cancer are actually below average. In fact, research shows that a gene responsible for the production of white blood cells and so-called "natural killer cells" that attack tumors was more strongly expressed among the population.
[...] there may be no need to engage in controversial "editing" of human genetics to create radiation-resistant astronauts because there might already be good prospects in a few corners of the world.
[...] Besides Ramsar, the beaches near Guarapari, Brazil, also exhibit very high levels of natural radiation. People in Yangjiang, China, live with radiation levels three times the world average but have below-average cancer levels, and the story is the same in Karunagappally, India.
Unfortunately, none of the people from these areas would be eligible for the program NASA is now hiring for -- the agency is only looking for American applicants. So who in the United States might be best suited for withstanding the most cosmic radiation?
Paging residents of Hanford, WA...
(Score: 1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 16 2015, @03:59AM
I thought the reason was going to be "because they're already used to living in a barren wasteland".
(Score: 1) by anubi on Wednesday December 16 2015, @07:00AM
I thought the same thing.
I do not believe I have "what it takes" to survive in a lot of places. I see what other people are surviving in and ponder if I would make it there.
Even if given 100 acres in the middle of Anza-Borrego "badlands" to survive on, just how long would I survive on my own? A couple of days after my supplies run out?
I would make a poor choice to colonize such a place. Yet I know good and well many areas I consider completely uninhabitable were indeed inhabited in the past by people who knew how to survive there. Consider Chaco Canyon.
Even reading my own family records of what my grandparents and great-grandparents went through - I must admit I fall pretty short in filling their shoes. I feel I owe my survival to the grace of others and the effects of the economies of scale as applied to agriculture and manufacturing. If I had to do this on my own - I would not be here to write this.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 3, Informative) by sudo rm -rf on Wednesday December 16 2015, @01:00PM
You have a very strange definition of "barren"...
Ramsar is a popular sea resort for Iranian tourists. The town also offers hot springs, the green forests of the Alborz Mountains, the vacation palace of the last Shah, and the Hotel Ramsar. [wiki]
Yangjiang has a monsoon-influenced humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cwa), with mild to warm winters and long, hot (but not especially so) summers, and very humid conditions year-round [wiki]
Karungappalli used to be an agrarian economy until the late 19th century with coconut, banana, tapioca and paddy as the main crops grown [wiki]
[Guarapari: ]Espírito Santo's climate is tropical along the coast, with dry winters and rainy summers. North of Doce River is generally drier and also hot. In the mountainous regions in the south and southwest of the state, the tropical climate is strongly influenced by altitude, and the average temperatures are colder.[wiki]