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Jim Adams, NASA/MSFC: "The radiation dose rate from Galactic cosmic rays inside a spacecraft in interplanetary space would be about 1.1 Sv/yr, but here on Earth its only ~0.0003 Sv/yr. The atmosphere and the magnetosphere are responsible for the dosage reduction mainly because the intense flux of lower energy cosmic rays never reach us. Also, secondary particles from the higher energy cosmic rays, the muons and electrons, do less biological harm than the parent cosmic rays would."

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