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A Mars Mission's Greatest Challenge: Radiation
daSeiz writes "A New York Times article explores the possible effects of prolonged radiation exposure in deep space. Surprisingly, very little is known about the subject. We'll need to find innovative new ways of shielding spacecraft from fraction-of-lightspeed interstellar rubbish if we're ever to spend much time outside our own magnetosphere."
Others include price, estimated at $30 billion to $60 billion, and launching enough food, supplies and fuel for a round trip. Any one of these could make the project impractical.
Well, not to sound too bitter, but going to Mars seems like a much better way to spend billions than going to Iraq.
Who said Freedom was Fair?
Ummm... Actually, wouldn't the worst problem be bone density loss. That's one of the main problems on the ISS (International Space Station). Without the effect of gravity, bone density decreases. From what I understand it's a pretty nasty recovery. The time required to go to and from Mars plus mission time would require much more time in space than any ISS mission to date.
Perhaps we could create a magnetic field pretty much like earth's to protect the spacecraft/station. Leaded materials are not an option, unless mars has a source of minerals that could be used to build the shielding. Anyway space research should be a priority. Many of the appliances and materials you use everyday use technology developed thanks to space research.
The problem is finding a shielding material that will absorb the radiation that will affect a human body, without transmuting radiation that would pass harmlessly through a human into radiation harmful to a human. Thus, you need a shielding material that is cheap and has the same absorbsion parameters as a human.
I suggest using spammers.
www.eFax.com are spammers
I think you'll find that your questions will be answered by a look at this site. It's all about Mini-Magnetospheric Plasma Propulsion (M2P2). They do exactly what you are asking for (create an artificial magnetosphere), and supply some nifty propulsion to boot. And no, it doesn't require megatons of molten iron, as some other posters have suggested...
Here's the link: link
Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.
just bury them underground. That's hardly what I think Zubrin and company want.
Umm...guess you haven't read his book. That's *exactly* what Zubrin wants, and advocates in his book "A Case For Mars". Just because someone wants something very badly does not mean they are blind to the realities of their dreams.
---- El diablo esta en mis pantalones! Mire, mire!
As the article indicates this is not that much of a problem if you design the crew compartment, or at least part of it, with a second hull and fill it with water which you'd use when you get there anyway. The major challeneges are:
- a pretty major propulsion system to get a heavy ship headed to Mars at a high rate of speed, presumably nuclear
- getting a lot of mass into LEO in the first place
It doesn't bode well for a new Moon or Mars mission that NASA can't even get mass in to orbit in a reasonable way. As I've said before throwing a bunch of money into NASA for a new space initiative is not a good idea. As the shuttle and ISS show NASA has developed fundemental institutional flaws which tend to result in large amounts of money being spent and not much being accomplished. To think you're just going to set a new goal and get a better outcome, with no structural change, is naive. Set up a new skunkworks if you want to accomplish something in space, hire the best people and reward them in a meritocracy, not a bureaucracy.
This article is also flawed in the same way as most discussions of a Mars mission. The goal SHOULD NOT be a round trip. The goal should be to start sending big unmanned cargo ships, carrying water, food, habitats, green houses and nuclear power plants to Mars and when they are arriving reliably send colonists on a fast one way trip to stay for the duration. The other major challenge finding men and women who are compatible and are willing to produce future versions of the colonists.
Spending 60 billion to send a few astronauts to pick up rocks and come back just isn't worth it. Apollo kind of proved this. As soon as landing on the moon had been done, missions to pick up rocks didn't hold public support.
A permenent colony is also kind of an underhanded way to insure long term funding for the program since once you have colonists on Mars you are going to have to do whats necessary to keep them alive, until they are self sufficient (though they may not be fully self sufficient for a long time for manufactured goods like electronics).
Once you have a self sustaining colony you are insured a perpetual mission and are free of the whims of whether Mars 18 will be funded or not.
@de_machina