Space is anything but empty – powerful streams of high-energy particles, moving nearly at the speed of light, are thrown off by the Sun during solar flares or find their way to our galaxy from powerful explosions in deep space.

On Earth, we are shielded from most of the cosmic radiation by our planet’s atmosphere and magnetic field. In just one day beyond these protective layers, astronauts are exposed to the equivalent of radiation received on Earth in a whole year. Explorers venturing even farther, for example during future missions to Mars, will need another way to protect themselves from these harmful rays.