UPSC Prelims Practice Questions — AstroRad vest offers lighter shield against solar storms
Q1. The radiation-protective vests flown in the Matroshka AstroRad Radiation Experiment aboard Artemis I were manufactured under the responsibility of which one of the following entities?
- A. Lockheed Martin Space, United States
- B. The German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany
- C. StemRad, Israel
- D. The Israel Space Agency, Israel
Q2. The AstroRad vest, in the configuration described for astronaut use, weighs approximately how many kilograms?
- A. About 8 kg
- B. About 22 kg
- C. About 45 kg
- D. About 60 kg
Q3. In the context of the Matroshka AstroRad Radiation Experiment, the term 'phantom' denotes which one of the following?
- A. A remotely operated humanoid robot carried to rehearse crew tasks under deep-space radiation conditions
- B. A pressurised dummy spacesuit filled with tissue-equivalent gel to measure suit leakage during the flight
- C. A life-size anthropomorphic torso built of materials replicating the radiation-transport properties of human tissue
- D. A sealed reference canister of dosimeters carried as an unexposed control for post-flight instrument calibration
Q4. With reference to the Matroshka AstroRad Radiation Experiment flown aboard Orion, consider the following body sites:
1. Both lungs
2. Stomach
3. Thyroid gland
4. Spine
Which of the above is/are correctly identified as sites within the phantoms at which M-42 radiation detectors were placed?
- Both lungs
- Stomach
- Thyroid gland
- Spine
- A. 1 and 2 only
- B. 1, 2 and 4
- C. 2, 3 and 4
- D. 3 and 4 only
Q5. The M-42 active radiation detectors deployed inside the two phantoms on Artemis I were supplied by which one of the following partner agencies?
- A. The European Space Agency (ESA)
- B. The German Aerospace Center (DLR)
- C. The Israel Space Agency (ISA)
- D. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
Q6. NASA signed the agreement with the Israel Space Agency and the German Aerospace Center that manifested the AstroRad vest for flight testing on Artemis I in which year?
- A. 2014
- B. 2016
- C. 2018
- D. 2020
Q7. Evaluation of the AstroRad vest for crew comfort, fit and range of motion was carried out under which one of the following study-and-platform combinations?
- A. The MARE payload, aboard the International Space Station
- B. The CHARGE study, aboard the International Space Station
- C. The MARE payload, aboard the Orion spacecraft
- D. The CHARGE study, aboard the Orion spacecraft
Q8. Consider the following statements comparing the ISS-based evaluation of the AstroRad vest with its Artemis I flight test:
1. The ISS evaluation involved human crew members wearing the vest, whereas the Artemis I test used instrumented phantoms with no crew aboard.
2. The ISS evaluation was conducted in a regime at least partly shielded by Earth's magnetosphere, whereas the Artemis I test carried the vest beyond that protection.
3. Both evaluations flew the vest aboard the Orion spacecraft, differing only in mission duration.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- The ISS evaluation involved human crew members wearing the vest, whereas the Artemis I test used instrumented phantoms with no crew aboard.
- The ISS evaluation was conducted in a regime at least partly shielded by Earth's magnetosphere, whereas the Artemis I test carried the vest beyond that protection.
- Both evaluations flew the vest aboard the Orion spacecraft, differing only in mission duration.
- A. 1 only
- B. 1 and 2 only
- C. 2 and 3 only
- D. 1, 2 and 3
Q9. In the 2026 findings from the AstroRad flight test, the reported result that the vest 'cuts radiation exposure in half' precisely denotes which one of the following?
- A. The mass of shielding needed to protect a crew was reduced to half that of conventional spacecraft shielding
- B. The dose rate recorded during passage through the Van Allen belts fell by half when the spacecraft was reoriented
- C. The dose registered at the covered sites of the vest-wearing phantom was about half that at the same sites unshielded
- D. The mission-total dose from galactic cosmic rays received by the vest-wearing phantom fell to half the unshielded value
Q10. The radiation characterisation effort for the Artemis I mission, whose shielding results were published in 2026, was coordinated by which one of the following?
- A. The Israel Space Agency, which directed the entire dosimetry programme of the mission
- B. NASA's Johnson Space Center, working with the mission's international partner agencies
- C. The German Aerospace Center, the sole authority certifying all deep-space dose measurements
- D. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which exclusively handles every NASA radiation dosimetry task
Q11. Consider the following pairings of a space-radiation hazard with its stated characteristic:
1. Galactic cosmic rays - protons, helium ions and rarer heavy nuclei reaching and exceeding 100 GeV per nucleon
2. Solar particle events - sporadic emissions from solar eruptions with particle energies generally below about 1 GeV per nucleon
3. Solar particle events - amenable to material shielding, which can avert acute radiation syndromes from large dose accumulation
4. Galactic cosmic rays - fully neutralised by hydrogen-rich polymer shielding of the kind used in wearable garments
Which of the above is/are correctly identified?
- Galactic cosmic rays - protons, helium ions and rarer heavy nuclei reaching and exceeding 100 GeV per nucleon
- Solar particle events - sporadic emissions from solar eruptions with particle energies generally below about 1 GeV per nucleon
- Solar particle events - amenable to material shielding, which can avert acute radiation syndromes from large dose accumulation
- Galactic cosmic rays - fully neutralised by hydrogen-rich polymer shielding of the kind used in wearable garments
- A. 1 and 4 only
- B. 2 and 3 only
- C. 1, 2 and 3
- D. 1, 3 and 4
Q12. Consider the following statements about the Artemis programme:
1. Artemis I was an uncrewed mission launched in November 2022 that tested Orion's performance in deep space on a flight of about 25 days.
2. The Orion spacecraft comprises a crew module and a service module, the latter built by the European Space Agency.
3. Artemis II, flown in April 2026, carried a crew of four around the far side of the Moon and returned them to Earth.
4. Under NASA's 2026 decision, Artemis III is to place astronauts on the Moon's south polar region in 2027 for a stay of almost a week.
Which of the statements given above is/are NOT correct?
- Artemis I was an uncrewed mission launched in November 2022 that tested Orion's performance in deep space on a flight of about 25 days.
- The Orion spacecraft comprises a crew module and a service module, the latter built by the European Space Agency.
- Artemis II, flown in April 2026, carried a crew of four around the far side of the Moon and returned them to Earth.
- Under NASA's 2026 decision, Artemis III is to place astronauts on the Moon's south polar region in 2027 for a stay of almost a week.
- A. 1 and 3 only
- B. 2 and 4 only
- C. 3 only
- D. 4 only