Artemis I MARE Data: Radiation Vest Cuts Dose by 60% in Solar Storm Scenario

New peer-reviewed data from the Artemis I MARE experiment show a wearable vest can reduce radiation dose by about 60% during a solar storm, a boost for deep-space missions.

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New peer-reviewed data from a radiation experiment flown on NASA's uncrewed Artemis I mission show that a wearable vest could cut an astronaut's effective radiation dose by roughly 60% during a solar storm similar to the August 1972 event. The findings, published in Science Advances on 12 August 2026, mark the first study in space radiation research beyond low Earth orbit to use realistic female body analogues.

The experiment, named Matroshka AstroRad Radiation Experiment (MARE), was led by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and flew on Artemis I, which launched in late 2022 and spent 25.5 days in space. During the mission, the Orion spacecraft passed through Earth's Van Allen radiation belts, providing a real deep-space environment for the test.

MARE used two female phantoms, called Helga and Zohar, built from tissue-equivalent plastic. Each phantom consisted of 38 discs replicating an adult female torso. Zohar wore the AstroRad vest, developed by StemRad, an Israeli-American startup, while Helga flew unprotected as a control. The phantoms were equipped with several thousand passive dosimeters and 16 M-42 active radiation detectors developed by DLR. NASA contributed 18 Crew Active Dosimeters (CAD) and several thousand Thermoluminescent Dosimeters.

According to the study, the AstroRad vest reduced effective dose by about 60% under the simulated solar storm conditions. The vest would perform roughly as well as Orion's heavily shielded onboard shelter during such an event, the researchers reported. The August 1972 storm, which occurred between the Apollo 16 and Apollo 17 missions, is used as a reference for a severe solar particle event.

Anke Pagels-Kerp, DLR's Divisional Board Member for Space, said that the results are a major step for radiation protection on future missions. She noted that the data will inform the design of the Artemis II mission, which will carry a crew around the Moon. MARE is a collaboration between DLR, NASA, Lockheed Martin, and StemRad.

The findings suggest that a lightweight vest could offer significant protection, potentially enabling longer crewed missions beyond low Earth orbit. The study's use of realistic female body models is a first, addressing a gap in space radiation research, which has historically focused on male astronauts.