Space exploration “for all humankind”

There is a reason why women face discrimination in space – fortunately. And it isn’t a sexist conspiracy. From the article at: https://www.space.com/22252-women-astronauts-radiation-risk.html

Both male and female astronauts are not allowed to accumulate a radiation dose that would increase their lifetime risk of developing fatal cancer by more than 3 percent. A six-month mission on the International Space Station exposes astronauts to about 40 times the average yearly dose of background radiation that a person would receive living on Earth, NASA spokesman William Jeffs said .

While the level of risk allowed for both men and women in space is the same, women have a lower threshold for space radiation exposure than men, according to physiological models used by NASA.

“Depending on when you fly a space mission, a female will fly only 45 to 50 percent of the missions that a male can fly,” Peggy Whitson, the former chief of NASA’s Astronaut Corps, said. “That’s a pretty confining limit in terms of opportunity. I know that they are scaling the risk to be the same! And it’s a sad situation for the female astronauts on the International Space Station they will probably be too old to be chosen for the mission to the Moon!