Speaking of space, On twitter Homer Hickam is bitching about NASA testing what we have long known instead of trying to solve the problem and he’s right.
We already know what happens to the body in zero G high radiation environments. NASA sending one of the brothers up for a year will only tell us what we already know. Hickam says the time would be better spent solving the problem rather than confirming what we know.
https://twitter.com/HomerHickam
He’s right insofar as long-duration spaceflight (which includes something as mundane as months of exposure aboard the ISS) will mean longer exposure to higher levels of radiation than are found on Earth, and more need to take cover during solar flares. But the only people going to Mars will be aboard private spacecraft like Elon Musk’s superheavy — assuming they can work out the ass-first landings.
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2005/07oct_afraid/