Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: thedoc on 31/05/2013 12:27:17
-
Just one return trip to Mars would eat up about two-thirds of an astronaut's lifetime "safe" dose of radiation, a new study has shown.
Read the whole story on our website by clicking here (http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/news/news/1000201/)
[chapter podcast=1000389 track=13.05.30/Naked_Scientists_Show_13.05.30_1000826.mp3](https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thenakedscientists.com%2FHTML%2Ftypo3conf%2Fext%2Fnaksci_podcast%2Fgnome-settings-sound.gif&hash=f2b0d108dc173aeaa367f8db2e2171bd) or Listen to the Story[/chapter] or [download as MP3] (http://nakeddiscovery.com/downloads/split_individual/13.05.30/Naked_Scientists_Show_13.05.30_1000826.mp3)
-
33/66 rem (330/660 mSv) is quite a dose. The normal "occupational limit" is normally 1 to 5 rem per year (10 to 50 mSv). Of course, that is all without radiation shielding. I believe there is significant effort to find better radiation shielding, or to design the ship so that various non-living compartments would also be oriented to provided substantial shielding. Food, waste, water, etc.
How much does the dose vary with the 10 year solar cycles? One could attempt the flights during solar minima.
If the goal was building a remote colony, with one-way volunteers, then the radiation dose of the transportation would be half that of a two-way round trip. Living quarters on the planet would have to be designed to protect not only from the atmosphere, but also protecting from the solar and cosmic radiation. Houses, of course could be excavated to be substantially subsurface, although greenhouses would still at least need to be exposed to incoming solar light, and undoubtedly some people would enjoy strolling around the greenhouses, and also driving in the rovers.
There appear to be some recent articles about diurnal radiation variation on Mars, but only abstracts seem to be available.