Edenthiel wrote:
There is no safe level of radiation, regardless of what industry proponents claim. It is inherently dangerous to human and most other life. At best, the results of the damage might not show for decades, long enough for identification of the cause to be sufficiently obfuscated. I can't imagine the level of shielding necessary for an 18 month trip to Mars; the lunar astronauts were only gone for two days.
It's worth noting that airplane flight crews at only about 6-8 miles altitude are exposed to doses of cosmic radiation above the level found on the ground. And they are classified as radiation workers:
Modeling Radiation Exposure for Pilots, Crew and Passengers on Commercial FlightsI wonder what the result would be for long-term exposure even in low earth orbit - much less on interplanetary journeys?
I also would note that radiation exposure to astronauts has been a concern since the Van Allen belts were originally proposed. Some science fiction films of the 50s featured astronauts who returned to Earth as monsters due to cosmic radiation.
Star Trek, which had substantial NASA cooperation, incorporated the
Enterprise's deflector shields that were intended to protect against objects and radiation of various kinds. A red light would start beeping on Sulu's console whenever it encountered anything.
In real life, astronauts have received a variety of exposures and the
recent unmanned Jupiter "Juno" probe requires very heavy shielding which will eventually fail, and as you point out, "There is no safe level of radiation".
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28 Jul 2016, 3:53 pm
