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There's national educational television. Radiation is a word that covers many different types of physical energy. There is, for example, the benign radiance that comes to us from the sun. It makes the world visible with its light, and its warmth is the ultimate source of all activity that we define as life. The sound of my voice and my image on your television screen come to you by radiation from the transmitting station.
Similarly, X-rays are a highly penetrating radiation used to photograph hidden structures of the body and to treat certain diseases of the tissue. Radar is a type that detects unfriendly aircraft from afar and warns fog-bound ships of unseen obstacles to navigation. These belong to a form of energy propagation known as electromagnetic radiation. It travels through space with the uniform velocity of light, and, like visible light, it can be reflected or bent by refraction as it passes into a medium of different density such as water. But there is another kind of radiation that is not so immaterial as light or heat. It consists of the most elemental bits of matter, the nuclei of atoms, electrons, and similar particles,
streaming across the universe like schools of sub-microscopic minerals. They travel in straight lines as light normally does, entering the Earth's atmosphere from all directions. While they're very in speed, they are tremendously fast, moving at a clip that approaches the velocity of light. To this radiation category, belong the cosmic rays that constantly bombard the Earth from outer space. Nobody knows where they come from or how they originate. One theory is that they're from exploding stars within our own galaxy, and pick up speed during the millions of years that it may take for them to reach our solar system. Whatever their origin, they are among the unaccustomed dangers that a flyer has to reckon with in space. Our world-renowned authority on space medicine, Dr. Hubertus Strugold, is here in our studio again today.
He is going to tell us about the medical hazards that arise from radiation of various kinds in space flight. Dr. Strugold, at your service, prop. On one of our earlier programs, I recall that you spoke of an altitude of 20 to 25 miles as the region where a flyer begins to meet the full effect of radiation. Yes, I did. First, at about 20 miles, we encounter ultraviolet rays. High free frequency, light radiation from the Sun. At roughly 25 miles, we find ourselves without any natural protection from cosmic radiation. But now, we've already reached the frontier of space, then, have we not? Indeed, we have. On our last presentation, we saw Captain Ivancy Kinshlaw, where it's flown as high as 24 miles in the rocket-powered Bell X-2.
Then the radiation problem is an urgent one in space medicine. If we expect to go higher than 24 miles, yes. And we do, as Captain Kinshlaw says, in the new X-15 that North American is building to replace the X-2. I believe that you told us that ultraviolet rays are not a serious hazard. True, because they are filled up out by common material like ordinary window glass. Ultraviolet radiation is interesting mainly because of its effect upon the atmosphere. Now, that effect is to change the composition of the air, isn't it? Exactly. From an altitude of 15 miles up to about 20 miles or more, ultraviolet rays affect the molecules of the air itself causing a photochemical reaction. What happens is that atmospheric oxygen, the guys will use for fuel oxidation
in all our biological activities, splits into the two oxygen atoms that compose it. In the process, energy is transferred from the radiation to the atoms so that much of the ultraviolet light is absorbed. As it passes through this region of the atmosphere on its way to the ground. Otherwise, we could not endure exposure to it for more than a few minutes in the open air. Now, what happens to those two free oxygen atoms? As we certainly know, each one of them unites with the two atoms in another molecule of oxygen to form a different gas containing three oxygen atoms. That gas is called ozone or O3 in the vernacular of our tray,
as opposed to O2, which is ordinary oxygen gas. I would like to have another member of the Air Force School of Aviation Medicine and you about that. Dr. Hunt George Klamen was formerly deputy director at the Aeromedical Research Institute in Berlin. He came to the School of Render Field Air Force Base in 1947 and now in charge of the high altitude biophysical laboratory there. For some years, Dr. Klamen had been studying the effects of ozone in cooperation with the Armor Research Foundation of the Institute of Technology of Illinois in Chicago using their technical facilities. With several office assistants, Dr. Klamen had exposed himself voluntarily to various ozone concentrations for considerable length of time in atmosphere in Chicago.
He is more familiar with these effects than any other person I know. Welcome to our TV symposium, Dr. Klamen. Thank you, Dr. Reira. I understand that ozone has considerably different properties from ordinary oxygen. To consider will extend, yes, as much more active than ordinary oxygen. For example, if you bring rubber into contact with concentrated ozone in the laboratory, it cracks almost instantly. Because ozone contains so much power, it was often being considered as a potential rocket fuel instead of logs that is liquid oxygen. That is, if ozone reverts ordinary oxygen with explosive violence, it's certain if it's too warm, particularly if ozone comes in contact with some time, it's water, organic materials or certain metals, to have a few of the substances that trigger this reaction.
Ozone has a peculiar odor, resembling that of chlorine. It can be noticed in the air occasionally after some of strong electricity has converted some of the oxygen into ozone, just as radiation thousands of atmosphere. Just what is the main effect of ozone in the human body, Dr. Klamen? It is a strong irritant. If air containing ozone, quite small concentrations is increased for several hours or longer, it causes swelling in the pointy tubes and in the lungs. Eventually, it can lead to death by suffocation. That's amazing. Traditionally, ozone has been a symbol of fresh, clean air, possibly because of the odor that Dr. Stoffer mentioned. Coming off the thunderstorm, it's associated with air washed clean by rain. At one time, ozone was introduced into schools to purify the air, but actually it's a toxic gas.
Now, how much of this toxic gas can the human body stand? Very little. We have a table showing the normal threshold of tolerance to various toxic gases. For gasoline, fumes, 500 parts per million are tolerable. For carbon monoxide, the figure is 100 parts per million. Even if the case of deadly gases like postgene or chlorine, one part per million is tolerable. For ozone, it's only one tenths of a part per million. More than that is little. Not necessarily, the figures are just quoted are for constant exposure. In a person may tolerate a good deal more for one hour or two without any permanent ill effect. In individual, susceptibility seems to vary widely, but more than four parts per million normally by non-civil symptoms and a much higher concentration may very well be fatal. I suppose the concentration in the ozone layer of the upper atmosphere
is a great deal higher than four parts per million. You're probably thinking of the fact that there are one-fifths of the atmosphere as oxygen. This high reconsentrate into ozone, but the air above 15 miles is very much diffused, and the ozone layer covers the depths of at least five miles. Only small amount of the oxygen, at any specific altitude, is transformed into ozone. The peak concentration of ozone is about five or six parts per million. But even that would seriously affect the flyer, would it not? Yes, if it were drawn into the cabin from the outside and compressed, in the way that aircraft cabins are pressurized at low altitude, of course, the heat, or danced by a compression of the air with the story of some of this ozone. In a very small cabin, for one person only, a filter could be used to remove the rest, but the filter, large enough to clean the air in a cabin,
carrying a number of passengers, would be quite hard to build. However, in a pressure suit, breathing 100 percent oxygen, the flyer would not be affected. All of those factors, have explained why we feel that it seems, cabin, with its own built-in system, to exchange out of spare gases, becomes a necessity above a 12 to 15 miles. Organary pressurization equipment, number comes to bulging and to heavy. They produce by compressing ambient air into more, than the body can endure, and still functioned efficiently. And the pressure suit limits the mobility of the flyer too much, except in emergency. It can only perform its duty safely and uncomfortably in a single cabin, like the model that is designed by Mr. Kraferica. Yes, the electric cabin, of course, that will strike ozone with the end of the outside,
but there's another possibility. What is that? The armor foundation has developed a method of storing and handling liquid ozone safely by avoiding any trace or impurities in it. This means that ozone, with its greater energy per pound or weight, may soon be used in rocket propulsion instead of oxygen. You may, then, have the potential, as up for leaking fumes, as we now have for example, this carbon monoxide fumes from all in our engines. Do you feel that the possibility of ozone poisoning might be a serious problem? Not the very serious one. Fortunately, the peculiar odor of ozone, which we mentioned earlier, is easily detected, but there have been several cases of ozone poisoning in the industry for a new welding method that forms ozone in the air in the electric spark. Even a remote possibility of ozone leakage into a sealed space cabin is one
that we would have to take an account in aviation medicine. Well, thank you very much, Dr. Plumman, for pointing out a little non-medical hazard in space flight. The oil debris, that's been a pleasure to meet you. The flyer passes very quickly through the ozone layer of the atmosphere on his way into space, and the actual time that his rockets are firing is comparatively brief, so that he would not be exposed for very long to the chance of ozone leakage from the fuel supply or the engines. But after he gets above an altitude of 25 miles, he is exposed continuously to a barrage of cosmic ray particles, until he returns to the Earth. Can you tell me, Dr. Strugval, what the latest thinking is in Air Force medicine on that problem? Unfortunately, we have all too little information on the medical effects of cosmic radiation. Why is that?
Mainly because the attack to the radiation is so difficult at the present time for medical research. You see, cosmic rays are held up by their bench downward through the atmosphere just as ultraviolet radiation. In the case of ultraviolet, some of it is filtered out in the formation of ozone by the rest reaches us in original form, but almost all the cosmic radiation entering the atmosphere is changed. By the time it reaches down to an altitude of 50 miles. Can you tell us a little bit about these changes that occur coming down through the atmosphere? Above 25 miles, the rays consist entirely of primary particles with the full energy that they bring with them out of space. By the time primaries have penetrated
to 75,000 feet, they have reacted with particles of air in the atmosphere to produce the secondary cosmic rays that show up down upon the Earth with much less energy. After now, space flight has not yet reached a point where we can maintain a rocket craft at a height of 25 miles or more for an extended length of time in order to study the behavior of cosmic primaries in their pristine form. Is that not one of the important aspects of Project Vanguard, the Earth satellite program? Yes, it is. The instrumented satellites will give us a great deal of useful information about the intensity of cosmic ray activity in space. However, it will not tell us much about the medical effect on living tissue. For that, we will have to wait
until satellite carrying savouratory animals and later human beings are available. Now, it is possible with some accelerators and other devices to produce high-energy particles, but it really isn't possible to produce high-energy heavy nuclear particles of the type of cosmic ray of time there is it. No, we cannot. With cyclotron and similar instruments for nuclear research, we can accelerate some of the live elements up to the minimum speed of cosmic parameters. But with the heavy primaries, we cannot approach this energy. They are the ones in which we are most interested. How then do we study the medical effects of cosmic radiation? Now, I would like to introduce to you a young physician
who had been doing some significant work in this field. Air Force Major David G. Simon is a flight surgeon and a specialist in aviation medicine. After serving in the far east during the communist invasion of Korea, he went to the Holoman Air Development Center, New Mexico, to investigate the effects of cosmic rays. As chief of the space by other chief branch there Dr. Simon had been conducting experiments for the past five years using planetary animals in high altitude plastic balloons. This work is practically the only experimental knowledge we have on the biological effects of cosmic radiation. Major David Simon, Dr. Haida. How do you do Major Simon? Well, the pleasure to meet you. Sir, do you write it? Well, tell me, sir. Now, why did you decide to use
plastic balloons in your experiments? For the reason that Dr. Strupold mentioned, we have no power and aircraft yet that are able to reach the altitudes where cosmic ray primaries are found and remain there long enough to secure any useful findings for research. Since the war, the Air Force and the Navy have developed plastic balloons that go as high as 25 or 30 miles for the study of conditions in the upper atmosphere. We design a small airtight envelope or capsule weighing as little as 80 pounds for the purpose of carrying small animals a lot along with the instruments to control the flight and to record the necessary data. In these, we have exposed the mice and other animals to cosmic radiation for free at up to 30 hours. Do you launch these balloons out over the desert in New Mexico? In most cases, we do not accept to provide data for comparison.
Cosmic particles are subject to magnetic influences from the Earth. The effect is to deflect the particles away from the clear while those above the polar regions are not affected. Almost none of the radiation we are particularly interested in can be found in the United States except along the Canadian border. So, we launch these balloons by some places like Great Falls, Montana, and Sue St. Mary, Michigan. Then we take off in an airplane and follow them. You follow them in an airplane? Oh, yes. Winds at high levels of the air sometimes have speeds of more than a hundred miles per hour. It's not unusual to fly all night tracking the balloon and finally, recover a capsule thousands of miles away. We must find the capsule. We want to know what kinds of radiation is done to the animals. And what does it do to them, Dr. Simon? First, let me tell you a little more
about the different types of cosmic radiation. In your introductory remarks, you mentioned how small the particles are. In fact, primaries are atomic nuclei without their orbital electrons. And so, they carry a strong audit of charge. About 96% of the nuclei are the two lightest elements, hydrogen and helium. The remaining four percent include the nuclei of every element, up to iron, on number 26. But these heavy particles from carbon through iron are the only ones that exist at state biology. Now, one of two things may happen to the cosmic particle as it enters the Earth's atmosphere from outer space. It may collide with the nucleus of another atom in the air or continue on losing its energy by ionization. A collision
results in an explosion. It destroys both nuclei and sends nuclear debris consisting of protons, neutrons, nesons, and other components of matter flying in whole directions. The nuclear debris is the comparatively innocuous secondary cosmic radiation that reaches the ground. Then, the cosmic particle trips away electrons and the atoms in its path, leaving a trail of ions, and finally, comes to rest that energy completely spent. This is known as an ionization track. These two reactions normally take place in the air itself. But they can occur just in the readily in anything else that happens to get in the way of the particle, such as a spaceship. Well, at first glance, it would appear that the ionization track should be comparatively mild in its effect. That is compared with the nuclear disintegration. So it would see.
But in fact, that is not the case. As, of course, you know, the explosion destroys only one atom in the target. And its effects are quickly scattered over a large wave of matter around it. But the ionization track, that's a wide swath of damage, through the atoms in its path, half of the body, constantly decay, or are destroyed, or are consumed in our metabolism. So loss of only a few or self by a nuclear explosion is no great catastrophe. It is the ionizing track that is more likely to give us trouble. What is the medical effect of such an encounter in the tissues of the body, Dr. Simon? It depends, of course, on the kind of tissue that the particle meets, as well as on the weight and energy of the particle. Some areas are more sensitive than others. For example, the individual cells of the skin
are much more sensitive than those in the central nervous system. But nervous cells do not renew themselves by growth that skin cells do. We could expose skin in thousands of radiation that would be fatal to the cells within it. It still would not suffer irreparable harm because the lost cells would be replaced. Any damage to the civil nervous system, however, would be permanent. Even there, the result might not be only disastrous for the system might bypass the damaged tissue, setting up a new channel for communication, so to speak. In that case, the final effect of the damage would be comparable to a slight speed up in the overall process of aging, which brings with it the gradual deterioration of the nervous system. In other words, the space pilot might not really suffer any noticeable distress from cosmic radiation, but, instead, might just simply age a little faster. Exactly. The various troubles that we set most of us
as we grow older might be accentuated in a man who spent much time in space. Now, how about genetic damage that would affect the flyer's descendants? Well, cosmic radiation certainly causes genetic changes, but, to what extent, we're just not sure. As with all these potential injuries, the question we want to answer is a statistical one. That is, how long can the flyer expect to spend in space before it suffers some irreparable damage to a specific part of the body? Now, if we know that, we can schedule flights in such a way that the potential danger will be minimized. Have you observed specific injuries of this kind in your test animals? In some cases, yes. Our most striking observation up to now has been, in fact, of cosmic radiation on the air of black mice and anything. This cells that control air pigmentation, that is, the color of the air, are relatively sensitive to the surface. They do not renew themselves
when they die, and they have no ulrichattles through which to function as nerve cells do. Now, when mice were exposed to cause radiation in our experiments, we found that the number of white spots turning up in the air might be, as much as eight times out of control animals on the ground. There were clusters of three or four follicles from which white hairs grew. The only thing which white hairs grew, when we plucked these hairs, the follicles, came out with them. Presumably, because they were permanently damaged by the cosmic radiation, similar effects were found in any pig. Several animals had streaks of white hair of the kind you would expect if a cosmic particle made ionization track through a dozen or more groups of pigment cells. From this, we concluded that the radiation did produce damage of the kind, we had expected incisitable cells. If the worst that happened to your mice,
was that they came back prematurely grey, the space pilot then should have very little to worry about from cosmic rays. Generally speaking, it is true that our animals apparently have suffered no serious damage from cosmic radiation. But you must remember that they have been exposed for only 20 to 24 hours at a time. We do not know what would happen after exposure for several days or a week as in the case of a crew of a man's satellite. That is a question more further. Also, there is a possibility that even a comparatively brief exposure might induce cancers which will show up only after a period of some years. For that reason, we had to keep our subject under observation long after the balloon flight is over. Still, the outlook is rather promising though. At this moment, yes. We are in urgent need of more definitive knowledge before we expose flying crew
to cosmic radiation for prolonged craze of time. Thank you very much, Dr. Simon, for a truly fascinating discussion of your work with the effects of cosmic rays. It is just such work as this that opens the door to the frontier of space. Our next program will take up a hazard of space flight that is more dramatic if not more disturbing than cosmic radiation. It is the chance of colliding with a meteor, one of those masses of rock and iron that cruise at reckless speeds about the solar system. Thank you very much. This is
National Educational Television. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.
Series
Doctors in Space
Episode Number
8
Episode
Atomic Barrage
Producing Organization
KUHT-TV (Television station : Houston, Tex.)
Contributing Organization
Library of Congress (Washington, District of Columbia)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip/512-n00zp3wx2x
NOLA Code
DORS
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Description
Episode Description
The problems of ultraviolet radiation and cosmic rays are explored in this episode. Dr. Clamann recounts his studies of the harmful effects of ozone which is produced in the upper air by the action of ultraviolet radiation on atmospheric oxygen. Dr. Stimons then discusses the origin and behavior of cosmic rays, narrating his own experiments with mice and other laboratory animals exposed to cosmic primaries in high-altitude balloon flights. Dr. Hans-Georg Clamann is Chief, High-Altitude Physiology Laboratory, School of Aviation Medicine, Randolph Air Force Base, Texas. He received his MD degree in 1929 from the University of Heidelberg. In 1935, he joined the Aero Medical Research Institute in Berlin, Germany, and in 1947 he came to the School of Aviation Medicine. He has published approximately 40 papers on physiology and aviation medicine. Major David G. Simons, USAF (MC), is Chief, Space Biology Branch, Aero Medical Field Laboratory, Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico. In August 1957, (after this film had been completed) he set a new altitude record in a manned balloon at 102,000 feet. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche)
Series Description
This timely series explores what is now known about flight into space and resultant medical problems and includes the latest scientific developments in space medicine. Much stock footage from US Air Force films is included, and experts in missile development and space medicine appear on the episodes. The basic aim of the series is to inform the public about the advances made in space flight, the problems encountered there, and the medical research going on to enable man to fly in space. In this age of dog-bearing satellites, National Educational Television viewers will be interested to learn of the possibilities of trips by human beings into outer space. Produced by KUHT, Houston in co-operation with the US Armed Forces, Doctors in Space has been cleared by the Department of Defense. Dr. John Rider, a professor of physics at the University of Huston, is the host of the series. Also, appearing in all 13 half-hour episodes of Doctors in Space, which were originally recorded on film, is a leading authority on space medicine, Dr. Hubertus Strughold, Advisor for Research, School of Aviation Medicine, US Air Force, Randolph Air Force Base, Texas. A native Westtuennen, Westfalia, Germany, he received his PhD from the University of Muenster in 1922 and his MD degree from the University of Wuerzburg in 1923. As a research assistant at the Physiological Institute in Wuerzburg, he specialized early in aviation medicine and gave the first lectures in this field in the summer semester, 1927, at Wuerzburg. In 1935 Dr. Strughold became director of the Aeromedical Research Institute in Berlin and associate professor of physiology at the University of Berlin. After the war he was appointed director of the Physiological Institute of the University of Heidelberg. In 1947 he joined the staff of the School of Aviation Medicine of the US Air Force. In 1949 he was named chief of the newly founded Department of Space Medicine at the Air University. In 1956, Dr. Strughold became a citizen of the US. In August of 1947, he was appointed Advisor for Research to the School. Dr. Strughold is a member of many national and international medical and scientific organizations including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Space Medicine Association, the American Rocket Society, the International Astronautical Federation, the International Mars Committee, and the American Rocket Society Space Flight Technical Committee. He is the author of The Green and Red Planet: A Physiological Study of the Possibility of Life on Mars and many professional papers on physiology, aviation medicine and space medicine. He is co-author of a textbook, Principles of Aviation Medicine, and an atlas on aviation medicine. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche)
Broadcast Date
1958-00-00
Asset type
Episode
Topics
Education
Science
Rights
Published Work: This work was offered for sale and/or rent in 1960.
Media type
Moving Image
Duration
00:29:42
Embed Code
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Credits
Guest: Strughold, Hubertus
Host: Rider, John
Producing Organization: KUHT-TV (Television station : Houston, Tex.)
AAPB Contributor Holdings
Library of Congress
Identifier: 2315570-1 (MAVIS Item ID)
Format: 16mm film
Generation: Copy: Access
Color: B&W
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Citations
Chicago: “Doctors in Space; 8; Atomic Barrage,” 1958-00-00, Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed July 17, 2025, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-512-n00zp3wx2x.
MLA: “Doctors in Space; 8; Atomic Barrage.” 1958-00-00. Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. July 17, 2025. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-512-n00zp3wx2x>.
APA: Doctors in Space; 8; Atomic Barrage. Boston, MA: Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-512-n00zp3wx2x