MARE project – Matroshka AstroRad Radiation Experiment. The MARE project aims to measure the differences between how specific organs, such as the brain, respond to radiation.

Data returned by the Artemis 1 mission should have an impact on the standard limit of allowable radiation for both male and female astronauts.

MARE will also be the first to measure the radiation exposure to the female body beyond the orbit of the International Space Station (ISS). The female body is more sensitive to the effects of ionising radiation than the male body. It is therefore important to develop protective measures for the crews of future long-term missions based on this data.

Zohar, contributed by the Israel Space Agency, will fly to the Moon with a protective vest (AstroRad) made by the Israeli company StemRad, while Helga will fly without any protection. In this way, the identical models will collect comparable data sets.

A total of more than 6000 passive measurement sensors are placed both on the surface of and inside the ‘phantoms’. After the flight around the Moon, the radiation values measured by both models will be compared in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the AstroRad protective vest.

For the first time, MARE will also continuously collect measurement data that can be used to determine the radiation exposure inside the spacecraft at specific times during the flight to the Moon. This will be achieved using, among other things, 16 radiation measuring instruments developed by DLR – the DLR M-42.

You can read more about the mannequins Helga & Zohar in other dictionary entries.

Check out this video about the mannequins on board: NASA’s Artemis I ‘Passengers’

For a much more detailed and scientific look at the project, have a look at this PowerPoint: The Matroshka AstroRad Radiation Experiment