Tuesday, 29 June 2010 08:13

Evans's concern and opposition to NASA's experiments have had the support of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the animal protection group ADI (Animal Defenders International). The aerospace engineer at NASA, April Evans, resigned as architect of space on the International Space Station (ISS) as a result of NASA's decision to re-irradiation testing in primates, after 30 years not these tests.

According to Evans, this decision is a major setback for NASA.

Evans argues that irradiation experiments on primates not only fall outside the policy of Obama, whose long-term goal is to develop new technologies for armor and space radiation protection, but also jeopardize international relations and partnerships or future, which are key to the success of NASA.

In a letter to ADI on April 1, 2010, the Director General of ESA, Jean-Jacques Dordain, categorically opposed "to the need for additional experiments with primates, in view of the objectives of human research of Mars500 "and declined" the interest in research with primates, do not feel the need or usefulness of using these results. "



Evans worked for nine years in the Human Spaceflight Program of the VIPER ISS NASA at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, before his resignation. He received the Award of Excellence "Space Consciousness" of NASA, a distinction that receives less than 1% of the employees of NASA.



"After much deliberation, NASA gave up because I can not support the scientific rationale for radiobiological experiments on primates," Evans wrote in a letter to Samuel Aronson, director of Brookhaven National Laboratory, hired by NASA to conduct experiments with squirrel monkeys.

Evans encouraged NASA to focus on the development of radiation shielding. "Both the astronauts and the teams face the risk of radioactive environment of space. Is a problem we must solve all space agencies to solve interplanetary travel. The development of radiation protection is a technology for a space exploration program sustainable in the long term, "Evans said ADI.

Pasadena Weekly newspaper interviewed NASA Administrator, Charles F. Bolden, who defended the experiments as they are "strongly peer-reviewed and are carried out in a" very human. " However, would not comment on the growing internal debate and the apparent contradictions between the experiments and new directions that NASA received from the Obama administration. "These experiments were proposed to support space exploration plan that no longer exists," said Evans. "Experiments in primates only bypass the critical point is the need to develop shielding technology." In his letter to Samuel Aronson, wrote that "experiments on monkeys are to predict how the human brain function after exposure to radiation. This does not solve the problem of radiation received, only refines the measurement of the impact of radiation. "

ADI also wrote to NASA and the Brookhaven laboratory, urging them to consider the decisions of the European counterpart of not carrying out these experiments. "These experiments are not only inhuman, they are also a waste of time. They are expensive and do not have scientific support. We urge NASA to stop ignoring the overwhelming opposition to these experiments, which are both the international community and its own ranks, "said Jan Creamer, ADI's president. "We also want to invite the NASA employees who object to these experiments, to express their opposition."

Facing the crisis, the costs of these experiments also raise concerns. Reports indicate that the question of radiation tests would cost $ 1.75 million from taxpayers. Only two weeks earlier, NASA had announced the potential dismissal of 5,000 workers, while suspending the lunar exploration program due to budget cuts.




News Source: Daily Finance. Image Source: Allie Caulfield