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If I recall correctly, one of the hardest problems about getting humans to Mars is how to shield them from cosmic radiation. Usually stuff that shields radiati
by narrator 10y ago
If I recall correctly, one of the hardest problems about getting humans to Mars is how to shield them from cosmic radiation. Usually stuff that shields radiation, like lead, is very heavy and very heavy stuff doesn't go very well with space travel.
- therein 10y agoThere are plans to get around that such as shielding yourself from the radiation using your food and water supply.
- lolc 10y agoEh, you need to bring water anyway. Stay in the water bubble and you're protected. It's a one-way trip, right?
- greglindahl 10y agoThat doesn't stop high-energy particles. Neither does lead.
- gizmo686 10y agoDoes it matter? A space ship is a closed environment, so presumably any water you start with will stay with you in some form or another. There may be some processes that turn it into a less usable form, but I imagine the majority of water would end up as either urine, essentially identical to water for the purposes of shielding, or sweat, which can be recovered as water through the life support system.
- lolc 10y agoThe problem is the massive amount of water you would need to create a protective shell. Getting it into orbit and accelerating the whole bubble towards Mars is very expensive and bringing it back probably impossible. But that's no problem if you're going to live on mars, right? Just bring enough water for irrigation.
- ENTP 10y agoHow did they do it for the moon landings? Or is the radiation beyond that?
- shakna 10y agoI'm not sure of the procedures used to protect the Apollo astronauts, but it hasn't worked very well [0]. Though, NASA says that its too early in the process to make any conclusions [1]. The key conclusion of the study: > They found the Apollo astronauts’ mortality rate from cardiovascular disease was as much as five times higher than for astronauts who never flew, or for those who flew low-altitude missions aboard the space shuttle that orbited a few hundred miles above Earth. [0] https://www.rt.com/usa/353865-apollo-study-heart-disease/ https://www.rt.com/usa/353865-apollo-study-heart-disease/ [1] http://www.reuters.com/article/us-space-health-astronauts-idUSKCN1081MG http://www.reuters.com/article/us-space-health-astronauts-id...
- greglindahl 10y agoNot a significant result.
- chrismealy 10y agoIIRC moon in just inside the earth's magnetosphere.