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I believe those people would have accumulated enormous radiation dosages over the duration of the flight, they might not have a long life left and a return voya

I believe those people would have accumulated enormous radiation dosages over the duration of the flight, they might not have a long life left and a return voyage would shorten that even more. Might as well stay put for the remaining time on Earth, err, Mars, stay in deep lava tubes and help build that colony.

JumpCrisscross 6y ago
> those people would have accumulated enormous radiation dosages over the duration of the flight What is this based on? One of the chief contributors to the mass of a Mars voyage is shielding.
- spacemark 6y ago
  You can't really shield against galactic cosmic rays (too high energy, would require far too much mass), which make up approximately 95% of the dose. https://science.sciencemag.org/content/340/6136/1080.abstract https://science.sciencemag.org/content/340/6136/1080.abstrac... *Edit - but the comment higher up isn't right either, that most Mars-bound astronauts will have decreased lives. The paper linked above estimates 3% of astronauts to die from cancer caused by the trip (assuming no exposure on the surface of Mars, meaning they're in the ground).
  - jerf 6y ago
    And if the worst thing that happens to early Mars astronauts is "a 3% increase in the chance of dying from cancer someday", they will ecstatic. The list of more pressing risks is long.
dr-detroit 6y ago
The European Space Agency agrees "It would be impossible to meet acceptable dose limits,” Next I would like to direct your attention now to the Mercury spacewalk footage available on Youtube that is clearly claymation....
valuearb 6y ago
NASA studies indicate a two year round trip to Mars (with roughly a year of surface time) would increase cancer rates by only 4%.