Free-flyer biostack experiment

The free-flyer biostack experiment is part of a radiobiological space research program that includes experiments in space as well as in accelerators on Earth. The program has been specially designed to increase knowledge concerning the importance, effectiveness, and hazards of the structured components of cosmic radiation to man and to any biological specimen in space. Up to now, our understanding of the ways in which HZE particles might affect biological matter is based on a few spaceflight experiments from the last Apollo missions and on the limited data available from heavy-ion irradiation from accelerators. In the near future, accelerators capable of accelerating particles up to higher atomic numbers and higher energies will promote increased activity in ground-based studies on biological effects of HZE particles. Comparison of data from such irradiation experiments on Earth with those from an actual spaceflight experiment will show any potential influence of the inevitably attendant spaceflight factors (e.g., weightlessness) on the radiobiological events.