To: SunkenCiv
Io is so close to Jupiter that the size facing the gas giant bulges 60 feet into the sky. It's the most actively volcanic body in the solar system and is literally hell on earth. There is a huge deadly cloud of ionized particles surrounding the little moon due to the particles it's volcanoes are shooting up that are getting charged by Jupiter's magnetosphere. Where radio signals can be sent and/or received is no determining factor as to human survival. There are many scientists today who think that human interplanetary travel just outside the Earth's magnetosphere is an impossibility because of charged particles from the sun. Shielding won't help because the particles pass through solids no problem. NASA did an exhaustive study of the hazards that can be found here:
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/generalscience/space_health_011205-1.html
And forget the radiation, just the loss of muscle mass and bone is a huge hazard to long term space travel. Exercise and a rotating g-chamber (as per 2001: A Space Odyssey) will not help you. Astronauts on a routine mission to the ISS lose 30 percent of their bone structure due to the lack of gravity. And you cannot simulate gravity waves. Scientist even doubt that a colony can be put on the Moon due to the onset of bone loss and the exposure to radiation. Mars may be out of the question because it has no magnetosphere and thus is bathed in radiation. We'll have to rely on the robots for the heavy stuff.
To: spacecowboynj
Scientist even doubt that a colony can be put on the Moon due to the onset of bone loss and the exposure to radiation.
That's been a suspicion for a long while; Asimov included that in one of his short stories, prior to the lunar landings.
26 posted on
11/22/2006 12:40:09 PM PST by
SunkenCiv
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