There are many theories surrounding the Apollo missions, there are even those who dare to assume that man never actually set foot on the Moon. One of the hypotheses uses the Van Allen belts to support that humanity never set foot on its natural satellite. According to these stories, the astronauts would have died when crossing these belts due to the large amount of radiation that resides in that area. But what is true in all this? To understand how these belts are interwoven and man arrives on the Moon, we must first understand what they are and what they are for.
What are Van Allen belts?
More than half a century ago, Americans were preparing to begin their space race against the Soviet Union. After the launch of the Soviet Sputnik 1 and 2, the United States launched its Explorer 1, its first space rocket and on board which was the Geiger radiation counter. Here the first approach was made with what we know today as the Van Allen belts.
High above that of Earth, the radiation captured by Geiger was not of terrestrial origin, but was from a region that scientists once considered devoid of particles. However, they encountered something that they did not know and that they did not expect. They expected to find radiation from cosmic rays, but instead they recorded much higher levels than expected.
The radiation recorded by Explorer 1 was the first look at Earth’s radiation belts, two concentric rings of energetic particles that surround the planet. The inner belt, composed predominantly of protons. And the outer belt, containing mostly electrons, would be called the Van Allen belts. They were named after James Van Allen, the scientist who led the charge who designed the instruments and studied the mission’s radiation data.
They are shaped like a toroid and extend above the atmosphere. The inner belt rises between 1,600 and 13,000 kilometers from the Earth’s surface, while the outer belt extends from 19,000 to 40,000 kilometers above sea level. To put it in context, the International Space Station orbits the Earth at just 390 kilometers high. So the belts are far beyond the layers of the atmosphere.
What are Van Allen belts made of?
The outer belt is made up of billions of high-energy particles that originate from the Sun and become trapped in the . An area that we know as the magnetosphere and that is the product of the interactions of the molten metal in the center of our planet. The inner belt, for its part, results from the interactions of cosmic rays with the Earth’s atmosphere.
Research has pointed out that although there is a large amount of radiation contained in this region surrounding the Earth, in reality, the belts act as protective shields from high-energy particles. That is, they trap these particles and keep them away from life, floating above us.
And the moon…?
The story between the Van Allen belts and the arrival of man to the Moon is interwoven precisely when conspiracy theorists claim that to leave the Earth, those destined for the Moon would not have endured such an amount of radiation. From this logic, both the astronauts and the rocket itself would have suffered serious consequences and, therefore, humanity never left the planet and never reached the Moon. But is there any chance this is true?
Here comes a big ‘it depends’. It is true that the radiation housed in the Van Allen belts is potentially fatal to men. It is also true that astrophysicists face this when it comes to sending space missions, since radiation can damage the devices. However, time is the key that determines the amount of radiation absorbed.
The Apollo missions crossed the Earth’s belt areas in a matter of minutes. It took them just 30 minutes to cross the inner proton belt, the more dangerous of the two. The amount of radiation absorbed by both the rocket and the astronauts was minimal and did not cause havoc. Therefore, the Van Allen belts cannot be used as a falsificationist argument against reaching the Moon.
However, we should not underestimate this area that lives on the outskirts of the Earth. The radiation it houses is one of the biggest challenges that engineers and astrophysicists face when it comes to space missions. Many satellites that have crossed these regions repeatedly have suffered irreversible damage, although this has been over several years.