NASAs Artemis missions, which aim to send a human crew — including a woman and a person of color — to the moon by 2025, will shoot female dummies into space first to test the effects of radiation on them.

Why it matters: Artemis is a prelude to sending human astronauts to Mars, NASA says, and women appear to be at a greater risk of suffering from the harmful effects of space radiation than men, Gizmodo reports.

Whats happening: This summer, the first of three planned Artemis missions is expected to launch into orbit — not with humans, but with two identical phantoms representative of the female body, according to the German Aerospace Center, the NASA partner that developed the mannequins.

The dummies, nicknamed Helga and Zohar, will include more than 10,000 passive sensors and 34 active radiation detectors, said the German Aerospace Center, or DLR.

The mannequins will investigate radiation exposure throughout the flight, which may last up to six weeks.

Details: The German agency says the twin mannequins are modeled on female bodies and made from materials that mimic human bones, soft tissues and organs of adult women.

Women are at greater risk of cancer than men, so different radiation boundary values always apply to female astronauts, the DLR said.

However, so far there have been no sex-specific measurements using phantoms in space.

Helga will fly to the moon unprotected, while Zohar will wear a newly developed radiation vest called the AstroRad.

The big picture: Solving the radiation problem will help NASA with its long-term goal of getting humans to Mars. Outside of the Earths protective shield, human bodies are far more vulnerable to the harmful effects of radiation.

Studies of radiation exposure for men and women indicate a higher chance of women developing cancer, while other research has found that space radiation is likely to affect female reproductive health, Gizmodo says.

In the Artemis 1 mission, NASAs Space Launch System will take off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida this year and send a capsule named Orion around the moon and back, the New York Times reports.

Artemis 2 will trace the same path — but with astronauts, sometime in 2024.

The third mission, Artemis 3, will result in a moon landing, per the Times.

What theyre saying: With the Artemis flights, we will collaborate with commercial and international partners and establish the first long-term presence on the moon, NASA says. Then, we will use what we learn on and around the moon to take the next giant leap: sending the first astronauts to Mars.