Artemis II Was The First Manned Attempt To Cross The Van Allen Belts

​The Soviet Monopoly on Space Flight

​Before the Artemis program, the Soviet Union was the absolute authority on the physics of the solar system. The Soviets systematically occupied every major milestone in the inner solar system, beating America to every real benchmark:

• ​First Object in Orbit: October 4, 1957 (Sputnik 1)
• ​First Dog in Orbit: November 3, 1957 (Sputnik 2; Laika)
• ​First to Reach the Moon’s Vicinity: January 2, 1959 (Luna 1)
• ​First to Impact the Lunar Surface: September 14, 1959 (Luna 2)
• ​First to Photograph the Far Side of the Moon: October 7, 1959 (Luna 3)
• ​First Human in Orbit: April 12, 1961 (Yuri Gagarin in Vostok 1)
• ​First to Fly By Mars: November 1, 1962 (Mars 1)
• ​First Soft Landing on the Moon: February 3, 1966 (Luna 9)
• ​First to Reach Another Planet's Atmosphere: October 18, 1967 (Venera 4)
• ​First to Orbit the Moon and Return with Living Beings: September 14, 1968 (Zond 5)
• ​First Robotic Rover on the Moon: November 17, 1970 (Lunokhod 1)
• ​First Soft Landing on Mars: December 2, 1971 (Mars 3)
• ​Only Nation to Conquer the Venusian Surface: 1970 to 1982 (Venera 7 to 13)

​1957 to 1968: The Soviet Path to the Radiation Wall

​Between 1957 and 1968, the Soviet Union transitioned from testing biological limits in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to testing the deep space environment. Rather than the mammals like dogs and monkeys that they had used for orbital testing starting in 1957, the Soviets made a calculated shift for the deep space missions of the Zond program.

​This culminated in Zond 5, which launched in September 1968. Just as Artemis 2 is designed to do tonight, Zond 5 performed a circumlunar free-return trajectory. It slingshot around the far side of the Moon and returned to Earth. This Soviet mission reached a peak distance of 238,000 miles from Earth.

​Despite clearly loading the most radiation-resistant creatures on the planet for their moonshot, the results were catastrophic. For this mission, the Soviets sent Steppe Tortoises, Wine Flies, and Mealworms housed inside the craft's one and a half inch thick honeycomb aluminum shell. Their logic was that they sent life forms with radiation resistance 300 to 1,000 times that of humans, figuring that if they broke, a human has no hope.

​They did break, and those organisms proved the lethal reality of the journey. While the Soviets paraded the tortoises around as "fine," they later euthanized and autopsied them, revealing a biological massacre that was only disclosed long after the fall of the Soviet Union:

• ​The 3.5 RADS Reality: Housed within the primary hull, the tortoises recorded 3.5 RADS, causing massive hepatic necrosis (cell death) in their livers and spleens.
• ​The DNA Glitches: The Wine Flies returned with lethal recessive mutations. Their reproductive code was shredded by the secondary X-rays (Bremsstrahlung) generated by the aluminum hull. Consequently, their offspring were either unviable or emerged as small, non-functional mutants.
• ​The Mealworm Monsters: The radiation shattered the biological clock of the larvae. Most could not even pupate or begin the transformation into beetles. Of the few that managed to metamorphose, they emerged as physical glitches with asymmetrical limbs and malformed shells.

​Because of this biological carnage, the Soviets wrote off the concept of attempting to send humans to the Moon. Based on the 1968 results, they knew they could not safely send people, so they continued their work sending unmanned probes, including the Lunokhod 1 rover which successfully landed and drove on the Moon in 1970, before eventually switching their primary focus to Venus.

​The Apollo Anomaly and the Kubrick Bookends

​When the U.S. supposedly did it three months later, they used the same kind of craft and sent humans in the same basic thickness of aircraft-grade aluminum that was designed for Low Earth Orbit.

​Just 90 days after the Soviet biological massacre, NASA claimed Apollo 8 carried three humans through the same zone in a similarly thin aluminum hull and returned with 10 times less radiation (0.4 RADS). Following 1968, NASA claimed six more lunar landings.

​While a slight increase in heart attacks was noted later in life, there was zero radiation poisoning or cellular breakdown recorded for any of the astronauts that are claimed to have gone to the Moon, despite the fact that humans are 1,000 times more vulnerable than the Zond 5 subjects. Furthermore, there were no reported cases of cancer among these astronauts related to space radiation, and neither they nor their children showed any of the lethal recessive mutations or physical glitches that the Soviet wine flies and mealworms suffered. We have access to the lifelong data of these astronauts, and it reveals no evidence of the biological destruction seen in the Soviet tests. The Apollo craft, at only 5 tons, were physically identical in shielding to the craft that failed the Soviet biological tests.

​This massive discrepancy in biological data has fueled the theory that director Stanley Kubrick was involved in the presentation of the Apollo footage. Proponents argue that the 1968 release of 2001: A Space Odyssey served as a technical demonstration, filmed in immaculate 70 mm film for the theater. In contrast, the "live" Moon footage was broadcast in grainy black and white, reduced down to roughly 10 frames per second. Kubrick’s work perfectly bookended the program: 2001: A Space Odyssey was released in 1968 to prepare the public mind, and then re-released in theaters in 1972 just as the supposed Apollo missions were concluded.

​Engineering for the Reality of Human Health

​To address the biological destruction seen in the Soviet tests, the Orion spacecraft features a design that differs significantly from the craft of the 20th century. This design specifically targets the Bremsstrahlung effect, which is the secondary X-ray production when high-energy electrons hit heavy metals like aluminum.

• ​Layered Composite Shielding: The Orion uses a sandwich design of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and aluminum-lithium. HDPE contains a higher concentration of hydrogen than any other solid; this is the most effective element at absorbing radiation without producing secondary X-rays.
• ​Shielding and Mass: The Orion capsule weighs 10.3 tons, nearly double the mass of the 5-ton Apollo modules. This extra weight is primarily dedicated to these specialized composite layers required to prevent the hepatic necrosis seen in the Zond 5 subjects.
• ​The Water Wall Shield: The crew is strapping food and water crates against the cabin walls. Water, being rich in hydrogen, acts as a natural barrier to stop the Bremsstrahlung that shredded the DNA of the Soviet flies.
• ​The Storm Shelter: The interior is designed to survive the journey by providing a central safe zone (a designated radiation shelter) where the crew will huddle while going through the Van Allen belts. This area also serves as a safe room during any other high-radiation events along the way, such as solar flares, ensuring their vital organs remain shielded during this first human crossing.

​Current Crew Health Status: April 2, 2026

​Following their first sleep shift in the Orion capsule (Integrity), the crew (Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen) completed their Daily Medical Conference with Houston this morning. All four members are reported in excellent health. To ensure they remain healthy as they prepare for the 7:49 PM EST Translunar Injection (TLI), Mission Control is monitoring:

• ​ARCHeR Wearable Sensors: Tracking real-time stress and circulatory performance.
• ​M-42 EXT High-Res Dosimetry: Four sensors are verifying that the 10.3-ton hull and Water Wall are successfully stopping the radiation that mutated the Soviet test subjects.
• ​AVATAR Organ-on-a-Chip: Flying alongside the crew are live human tissue analogs. These serve as a biological canary, allowing scientists to see cellular-level radiation damage in real-time.

​Deep Space Distance Benchmarks

• ​Zond 5 (Soviet): Sept 1968 | 238,000 miles
• ​Artemis 2 (USA): Tonight | 252,799 miles

​As of 1:50 PM EST, the crew is medically cleared and "Go" for the TLI burn. This mission marks the first time America has actually beaten the benchmarks set by the Soviet Union. Because the Soviet Union dissolved and is now just Russia, America can finally claim a first in space. Only because the Soviet Union fell apart is it possible for America to now be the first to actually cross the Van Allen belts with a human crew.

​Ultimately, it remains an experiment; America could have sent animals or other mammals to verify the shielding before risking the crew. However, because they are boxed in by the lie of the Apollo missions, they are sending humans; this marks the first time in history that any mammals are being sent through the Van Allen belts.