So, wait...
Is the claim that the radiation levels for the Apollo missions that were posted on the first page are unrealistically low? That they should be much higher than that? Is it possible that, like the Mars data, he's confusing units (milli- vs. micro-)?
Another thing to remember is that absorbed dose (rad or gray) is not the same as effective dose (rem or sievert):
Radiation type | Absorbed dose (mGy) | Effective dose (mSv) |
Alpha | 1 | 20 |
Beta | 1 | 1 |
Gamma | 1 | 1 |
Neutron | 1 | 10 |
SourceThe alpha effective dose is significantly higher than anything else, but it's only really dangerous if you inhale or ingest an alpha emitter like polonium. Most alpha particles are slow and heavy and can be blocked by little more than a sheet of paper.
The average American's effective radiation dosage from both natural and artificial sources of background radiation is on the order of 6 mSv/year (
source), or about .016 mSv/day. Given that 1 mGy translates to
at least 1 mSv, then yeah, the Apollo astronauts absorbed at least one order of magnitude more radiation than someone standing at sea level per day for the durations of those missions. The Apollo 14 astronauts absorbed considerably more than that.
Was it a big deal?
Here's a
chart of radiation amounts and effects in Sieverts.
![](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Radiation_Dose_Chart_by_Xkcd.png)
The annual maximum dose for radiation workers is 50 mSv. 100 mSv is the lowest one-year dose
clearly linked to increased cancer risk. 400 mSv is the dose where symptoms of radiation poisoning appear.
Assuming the worst possible case scenario where the Apollo 14 astronauts were exclusively exposed to alpha radiation inside their bodies, they absorbed an effective dose of 228 mSv. Significantly increased risk of cancer, but short of the dose necessary for acute radiation poisoning.
Assuming a more reasonable scenario of mostly beta and gamma radiation, you're looking at 11.4 mSv on top of their annual background dosage (which, being pilots, would be a couple of mSv higher than the rest of us), which is well below the max annual dosage for a radiation worker.
For the remaining missions, you're looking at an additional couple of mSv on top of the annual background dosage. You're looking at a
small increase in cancer risk.