Five months is still quite a time to have heavy nuclei cutting up your DNA.
Other suggestions include drugs which boost the body's repair mechanisms, drinking water and human waste as shielding (hmm, where did the glamour of space exploration go?), and the wonderful idea of charging the spaceship's hull to repel cosmic rays (which would unfortunately attract stuff out of the solar wind in a massive lightning strike, or so I'm told!) On 20 June 2014 17:30, 'Chris de Morsella' via Everything List < [email protected]> wrote: > > > > > *From:* [email protected] [mailto: > [email protected]] *On Behalf Of *LizR > *Sent:* Thursday, June 19, 2014 9:20 PM > > *To:* [email protected] > *Subject:* Re: Solar power's "bright future" > > > > On 20 June 2014 14:24, 'Chris de Morsella' via Everything List < > [email protected]> wrote: > > > > *From:* [email protected] [mailto: > [email protected]] *On Behalf Of *LizR > *Sent:* Thursday, June 19, 2014 7:09 PM > > > *To:* [email protected] > *Subject:* Re: Solar power's "bright future" > > > > Wow. I hope he has plans to protect those Marsnauts from cosmic rays. > > > > Once on Mars, Mars dirt (piled a few meters thick on top of the habitat) > can do the job. it is on the way there and on the way back that is hard to > see how they could be shielded. > > > > Yes, I realise that. I was thinking of the journey. The only viable method > known at present is to find an asteroid that crosses Earth's and Mars' > orbits and burrow into that (for both journeys - so you spend more or less > the entire trip underground, one way or another!) > > Interesting idea. It could also be done with electric rockets (such as the > VASIMIR) that could cut the travel times down to around five months, which > is doable in terms of accumulated radiation dosage (from the cosmic rays > and solar flux)… especially if the astronauts are older. The big problem > with these rockets – besides the power they need, is how to get rid of the > waste heat. With a chemical (or nuclear thermal) rocket the heat is removed > in the hot gas thrust; electric rockets (from what I have heard) require > large radiator systems in order to radiate away excess waste heat. > > Nothing is easy in space. > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
