Support Legislation to Suspend NASA’s Planned Monkey Radiation

Research Until a Detailed Report Has Been Produced

NASA has awarded a $1.75 million grant to Jack Bergman, Ph.D. to study the effects of space
radiation on the central nervous system (CNS) and behavior in humans using live squirrel
monkeys. PCRM supports legislation to suspend all NASA radiation research involving the
use of non-human primates and require the agency to produce a report demonstrating the
necessity for this research before proceeding. For many reasons, NASA’s planned research
is irresponsible.

Redundant
• Previous radiation experiments performed over four decades (1957-1990) by NASA, the
US Air Force, and other military agencies have contributed little to an understanding of
human radiation risks, and nothing to the specific risks of deep space and Mars travel.
Experimental results have been internally inconsistent and inapplicable to human space
travel, and these experiments have been criticized by the scientists who performed them.

• The mistaken assumptions and measures in the previous studies are largely duplicated in
proposed radiation experiments. Colonel Robert B. Payne stated in his review of military
radiation experiments in monkeys: “[T]he monotonous occurrence of negative results
soon blunts the enthusiasm of all but the most operationally minded investigators.”1

Waste of Money
• With NASA’s budget under intense scrutiny, radiation research on nonhuman primates is
an irresponsible use of taxpayer dollars.

• NASA’s recent radiation grant of $1.75 million should be reallocated towards more
ethical and effective research, including in vitro studies, computational science, space
radiation modeling, exposure data and decades of follow-up from space programs, and
data from anthropomorphic phantoms developed by NASA and ESA. Historical and
ongoing studies, including those funded by NASA and the Department of Energy, already
use validated nonanimal methods to determine the effects of radiation on human tissues.

Bad Science
• The use of non-human primates has proven to be ineffective in radiobiology and other
types of research due to significant physiological, anatomical, and genetic differences
between monkeys and humans. This principle is particularly applicable to squirrel
monkeys because they have important and immutable physical, lifespan, behavioral, and
CNS differences from humans.

• The proposed studies on monkeys do not employ radiation exposures that duplicate or
even approximate the complex mix of radiation exposures that occur during deep space
travel (Galactic Cosmic Radiation). Space scientists from ten nations have stated that it is
not possible to duplicate Galactic Cosmic Radiation in a laboratory. 2
 • Squirrel monkeys are small non-human primates that weigh on average 1-2 pounds. In
the proposed experiment, each squirrel monkeys would be given a single-dose heavy-
ionizing radiation. Previous research has already demonstrated that data obtained through
research involving a single-dose of radiation is not predictive of the effects of the
repeated doses that would be experienced on a manned mission to deep-space.3 Thus,
these experiments have little or no relevance to long-term space radiation exposures in
humans, and thus are not applicable to human space travel.

• Monkeys display abnormal physical and psychological effects related to confinement,

isolation, deprivation, handling, and cognitive or skills testing in restraint chairs.
Researchers cannot reasonably expect to interpret behavioral effects in this study, which
will be confounded by laboratory stressors.

Recent Developments
• The European Space Agency (ESA) recently announced that it is opposed to space
research involving non-human primates. In a letter to Animal Defenders International,
ESA Acting Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain wrote that the ESA “declines any
interest in monkey research and does not consider any need or use for such research
results.”

• Earlier this year, NASA aeronautical engineer April Evans, one of the youngest recipients
of the NASA Space Flight Awareness Honoree Award, resigned her position at NASA in
protest of NASA’s planned radiation experiments. Citing, among other reasons, that the
planned research is “not in line with President Obama’s direction for NASA,” she wrote
that she “could not support the scientific justification for this radiobiology experiment.”

Unethical
• This research violates the most fundamental criteria for ethical and productive scientific
investigation. It is duplicative, highly speculative, unvalidated, and has no evident
benefits for humans, yet uses highly sentient animals to their detriment.

• Non-human primates are intelligent and have complex social lives. Scientists have
documented evidence of cultural traditions, empathy, compassion, and self-awareness
across a wide range of primates. Squirrel monkeys are highly social animals and often
live in multi-family groups of several hundred individuals.

Violation of Core Principles

• This research violates all three of NASA’s own animal use and protection guidelines set
forth in the NASA Principles for the Ethical Care and Use of Animals, known as the
Sundowner Report. Those guidelines should be applied to this research proposal,
requiring withdrawal of NASA funding on ethical grounds.

1
Payne RB. Effects of ionizing radiation on human psychomotor skills. US Armed Forces Medical Journal
1959;10:1009-1021.
2
Reitz G, Berger T, Bilski P, et al. Astronaut's organ doses inferred from measurements in a human
phantom outside the International Space Station. Radiation Research 2009;171:225-35.
3
Barnes DJ, Brown GC, Mason RA. Effects of single versus multiple irradiation upon avoidance behavior
in the primate. Report SAM-TR-71-6. USAF School of Aerospace Medicine, Brooks AFB, TX. March
1971.