The Gemini-3 S-4 Spaceflight-Radiation Interaction Experiment

Abstract

M. A. BENDER, P. C. GOOCH, AND S. KONDO, The Gemini-3 S-4 Spaceflight-Radiation Interaction Experiment. Radiation Res. 31, 91-111 (1967). To test the suggestion that unusual radiobiological effects are associated with spaceflight, the S-4 experiment was carried out during the Gemini-3 manned spaceflight. The experiment consisted in the irradiation of duplicate series of whole human blood samples simultaneously on the ground and aboard the spacecraft during the orbital phase of the flight. After the mission a cytogenetic analysis was made to determine the frequencies of chromosome aberrations. Comparison of the ground and flight results showed that, although there was no significant difference between the yields of multiple-break aberrations, the yield of single-break aberrations was significantly higher in the flight samples. Several lines of evidence rule out the possibility that this difference was caused by any of the factors already known to influence chromosome aberration production. Preflight and postflight blood samples from the flight crew show that the spaceflight itself did not induce aberrations. A synergism thus appears to exist between radiation and some spaceflight parameter, at least for production of human chromosome aberrations.