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Launch Manifest For NASA's "Road To Mars" Takes Shape But Questions Remain
MarkWhittington writes: NASASpaceFlight.com reported that NASA's so-called "Road to Mars" is starting to take shape. The deep space program that would conclude with human astronauts departing for the Red Planet in 2039 would require just over 40 launches of the heavy-lift Space Launch System, including an uncrewed flight in 2018 and one flight a year to cis-lunar space starting in 2021 lasting until 2027. A flight in 2028 would launch something called the Pathfinder Entry Descent Landing Craft to Mars as a precursor for a human landing. Then the Mars program begins in earnest with a mission to Phobos in 2033 and missions to the Martian surface in 2039 and 2043.
That is a solved problem. If the crew quarters are surrounded by their water, it will absorb most of the harmful radiation.
Once on Mars, the habitat just has to be built underground. As we suspect we have found lava tubes, very large lava tubes at that, that would be a good place to build the hab.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
Just look at the Hubble telescope. It has far exceeded it's expected life and is still sending images back. Not possible without people in orbit and putting hands on.
It would be much less expensive to construct ten telescopes and send one up every year or two on the cheapest possible launcher. Human repair only makes sense because you've already spent so much on the Space Shuttle.
You don't need someone to traipse across Mars, but having someone being able to change the tire on a rover enables it to continue its mission.
Rovers are cheap and patient. Humans are super-expensive and the costs for their consumables rack up very fast. We returned 12 humans from the Moon, which costs quite a lot of money. We have left dozens of landers on the Moon and Mars - although parts of Surveyor 3 came back with the Apollo 12 astronauts.
Yes, most. Gamma rays need some serious shielding to block, but aren't very harmful.
http://www.passmyexams.co.uk/G...
Cosmic rays can be harmful to electronics, and there isn't much that can stop them (other than serious magnetic fields or large quantities of heavy metals).
Different radiations have different penetration depths, and different effects on the human body.
Most radiation damage happens when you ingest an alpha emitter, alpha waves can be blocked by a sheet of paper, but once inside the body, they can do serious damage to DNA. But, a spaceship made out of anything stronger than paper would block most alpha particles, and the sources of those particles.
Radiation is a complex subject.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?