[scifinoir2] Re: Cosmic rays may prevent long-haul space travel
What do ya mean? This could be a boom for us older folks! Read: This is enough to give 10% of men and 17% of women aged between 25 and 34 lethal cancers later in their lives, it concludes. The risks are much higher than the 3% maximum recommended for astronauts... The risks are smaller for older people because cancers have less time to develop. So maybe the first long-mission astronauts will be us older folks, who have already had kids? George --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, Amy Harlib [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This is really depressing! http://www.newscientistspace.com/article/dn7753 Cosmic rays may prevent long-haul space travel 15:01 01 August 2005 NewScientist.com news service Rob Edwards The radiation encountered on a journey to Mars and back could well kill space travellers, experts have warned. Astronauts would be bombarded by so much cosmic radiation that one in 10 of them could die from cancer. The crew of any mission to Mars would also suffer increased risks of eye cataracts, loss of fertility and genetic defects in their children, according to a study by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Cosmic rays, which come from outer space and solar flares, are now regarded as a potential limiting factor for space travel. I do not see how the problem of this hostile radiation environment can be easily overcome in the future, says Keran O'Brien, a space physicist from Northern Arizona University, US. A massive spacecraft built on the moon might possibly be constructed so that the shielding would reduce the radiation hazard, he told New Scientist. But even so he reckons that humans will be unable to travel more than 75 million kilometres (47 million miles) on a space mission - about half the distance from the Earth to the Sun. This allowance might get them to Mars or Venus, but not to Jupiter or Saturn. Risky business Helped by O'Brien, the FAA's Civil Aerospace Medical Institute in Oklahoma City investigated the radiation doses likely to be received by people on a 2.7-year return trip to Mars, including a stay of more than a year on the planet. The study estimated that individual doses would end up being very high, at 2.26 sieverts. This is enough to give 10% of men and 17% of women aged between 25 and 34 lethal cancers later in their lives, it concludes. The risks are much higher than the 3% maximum recommended for astronauts throughout their careers by the US National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements. The risks are smaller for older people because cancers have less time to develop. But women are always in more danger than men because they live longer and are more susceptible to breast and ovarian cancers. The study warns that cosmic rays would also increase the risk of cataracts clouding the eyes. Furthermore, men exposed to a solar flare might suffer a temporary reduction in fertility, and the chances that any children conceived by travellers to Mars will have genetic defects are put at around 1%. snip Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- font face=arial size=-1a href=http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=12hcbj72m/M=362335.6886444.7839734.2575449/D=groups/S=1705034827:TM/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1123799191/A=2894362/R=0/SIG=138c78jl6/*http://www.networkforgood.org/topics/arts_culture/?source=YAHOOcmpgn=GRPRTP=http://groups.yahoo.com/;What would our lives be like without music, dance, and theater?Donate or volunteer in the arts today at Network for Good/a./font ~- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[scifinoir2] Re: Cosmic rays may prevent long-haul space travel
Interesting! Thanks for posting this. Comsmic radiation? How about the stuff we create ourselves? Past events from falling satellites demonstrate this fact: There have been at least 41 known Soviet and now Russian missions involving nuclear power. At least six have failed. To date, three of 26 US nuclear space missions have failed - a failure rate of 12 percent. In August 1964, a US satellite powered by a 2.1 pounds of plutonium in a SNAP 9A reactor burned up over the West Indian Ocean, leaving a swath of plutonium-238 in the stratosphere. By November 1970, only about 5 percent of the original Plutonium-238 remained in the atmosphere and a US soil sampling showed SNAP-9A debris was present at all continents and at all latitudes. As late as May 1995, the radioactive dust could still be detected in the Northern Hemisphere at aircraft altitudes. According to the report, Emergency Preparedness for Nuclear-Powered Satellites, this single US reactor accident remains the main source of Plutonium-238 in the environment. 8 damaged reactors continue to circle the Earth. Cosmos 367, Cosmos 785, Cosmos 1266 and Cosmos 1299 were sent into higher safe orbits after malfunctioning. They remain in orbit, 560 to 625 miles overhead. 4 abandoned US SNAP reactors also circle the Earth, 500 to 1,000 miles overhead. All of these reactors are destined to reenter Earth's atmosphere over the next several hundred years. Source: http://www.earthisland.org/eijournal/fall97/wr_fall97plutonium.html For historical info, you may also want to read this article: http://www.jamesoberg.com/plutonium.html The probe that fell to Earth For current health issues, I found this interesting: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6152 Plutonium cancer risk may be higher than thought 09:30 18 July 2004 Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition by Rob Edwards Plutonium may be many times more dangerous than previously thought. The cancer risk from exposure inside the body could be 10 times higher than is allowed for in calculating international safety limits... Several tonnes of plutonium have been released into the environment over the last 60 years by nuclear weapons tests and nuclear plants. George Captain The USS Ronald E. McNair (Boston) --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, Brent Wodehouse [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: http://www.newscientistspace.com/article/dn7753 Cosmic rays may prevent long-haul space travel 15:01 01 August 2005 NewScientist.com news service Rob Edwards The radiation encountered on a journey to Mars and back could well kill space travellers, experts have warned. Astronauts would be bombarded by so much cosmic radiation that one in 10 of them could die from cancer. The crew of any mission to Mars would also suffer increased risks of eye cataracts, loss of fertility and genetic defects in their children, according to a study by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). snip Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- font face=arial size=-1a href=http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=12ha5thud/M=362335.6886444.7839734.2575449/D=groups/S=1705034827:TM/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1122935767/A=2894362/R=0/SIG=138c78jl6/*http://www.networkforgood.org/topics/arts_culture/?source=YAHOOcmpgn=GRPRTP=http://groups.yahoo.com/;What would our lives be like without music, dance, and theater?Donate or volunteer in the arts today at Network for Good/a./font ~- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
