5 ms·

We know how to shield from radiation, there is no mystery there, just put matter in btween the source and the passengers. It's not easy, but the physics are wel

• bvm 6y ago
  > Is the ISS somehow better protected near earth than in deep space? yes but it's incredibly complicated, radiation comes from multiple sources. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Atlantic_Anomaly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Atlantic_Anomaly and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Allen_radiation_belt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Allen_radiation_belt
• geomark 6y ago
  Yes, the ISS has some protection from being in low Earth orbit. But the rate of cosmic ray strikes is still high enough to pose a health risk, so the areas on ISS where astronauts spend most of their time have additional shielding. The material most often used for shielding is polyethylene because it performs better in terms of secondary emissions - heavy elements like lead emit showers of secondary particles when struck by cosmic rays and have to be very thick to contain the secondaries, which is far too heavy to put into space. Once away from low Earth orbit the shielding on a spacecraft becomes very expensive in terms of size and weight, even when it is the lighter weight polyethylene material.