Fragmentary remains of two ancient human relatives, Australopithecus sediba and Homo naledi, were carried aboard a Virgin Galactic flight on Sept. 8. Departing from Spaceport America in New Mexico, the fossils, carried by South African-born billionaire Timothy Nash in a cigar-shaped tube, were rocketed to the edge of space.
“I am horrified that they were granted a permit,” Sonia Zakrzewski, a bioarchaeologist at the University of Southampton in the U.K., wrote in an X thread, noting she would use it as an example in her class about unethical approaches. “This is NOT science.”
You’ll rarley find lead shielding on spacecrafts. Most of the radiation in space are high energy protons and these tend to knock neutons off lead atoms, creating secondardy neutron radiation.
It’s more common to use high density polyethylene or stainless steel for radiation shielding in space.