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A centrifuge solves microgravity problems, but no one has ever flown one at human sizes. Seems like a big to-do list item. With cosmic rays, having a large mas
by idlewords 5y ago
A centrifuge solves microgravity problems, but no one has ever flown one at human sizes. Seems like a big to-do list item.
With cosmic rays, having a large mass of metal around you will actually increase your dose (because of secondary radiation). So you need to figure out shielding that helps more than it hurts.
Space is hard.
- avmich 5y agoLarge rockets still help, even if shielding is not straightforward though.
- idlewords 5y agoCertainly. And if we had a big enough rocket, we could put its fins on earth and the tip on Mars and just climb up the middle.
- avmich 5y agoThat all skips the interesting middle values of the problem parameters :) . Seriously, for long time already it's not a rocket science. Existing technologies - with engineering efforts - are capable to bring humans to any point between Mercury and asteroids. We'll likely develop something better, and Solar system would be all reachable without major breakthroughs. Certainly not of the kind "rocket fins on Earth, tip on Mars".
- Robotbeat 5y agoShielding ESPECIALLY is straightforward, though. The parent was wrong about it being hard.
- Robotbeat 5y agoWhy the heck would you use metal for shielding when cheap plastic works way better? But anyway, the “shielding increases dose” is only true for a small portion of the thickness curve at the very beginning. Vast majority of the time even metal shielding helps. “Space is hard” is kind of a low-effort mantra. Space radiation shielding really is one of those things that is extremely straightforward to address with mass. Polyethylene, or actually any hydrocarbon solid, works fantastic.