Astronauts Going to Mars Will Absorb Crazy Amounts of Radiation. Now We Know How Much

Space.com ^ | Sept 20, 2018 | Meghan Bartels, Space.com Senior Writer

[ETL]

There are plenty of challenges to putting people on Mars, whether you look at the rocket, the astronaut or the planet itself.

New data from one of the many spacecraft at work around Mars confirm just how dangerous a round-trip human journey would be by measuring the amount of radiation an astronaut would experience.

Cosmic radiation is made up of incredibly tiny particles moving incredibly fast, nearly at the speed of light — the sort of phenomenon a human body isn't very well equipped to withstand. That radiation travels across all of space, but Earth's atmosphere buffers us from the worst of its impacts. That means the farther away from Earth's surface you go, the more cosmic radiation your body absorbs.

[Space Radiation Threat to Astronauts Explained (Infographic)]

By the time you're traveling to and from Mars, that gets to be a very big problem. "Radiation doses accumulated by astronauts in interplanetary space would be several hundred times larger than the doses accumulated by humans over the same time period on Earth, and several times larger than the doses of astronauts and cosmonauts working on the International Space Station," Jordanka Semkova, a physicist at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and lead scientist on the new research, said in a statement. "Our results show that the journey itself would provide very significant exposure for the astronauts to radiation."

Those results are based on data from the European Space Agency's Trace Gas Orbiter, a spacecraft that has been circling the Red Planet since 2016. One of the instruments it carries is a dosimeter, which has been taking measurements throughout the orbiter's journey.

According to the team behind the new research, those measurements show that just getting to and from Mars would expose astronauts to at least 60 percent of the current recommended maximum career exposure.

What precisely that recommended maximum is varies with sex and age, but it ranges from 1 sievert for a 25-year-old woman to 4 sieverts for a 55-year-old man. (The measurement of sieverts already accounts for differences in weight.)

But 60 percent just for the round-trip is particularly concerning, since presumably the point of going to Mars is to spend at least a little time on the planet's surface — ideally, without overdosing on radiation.

[Hot Tabasco]

So what protected the Apollo astronauts in not only their flight to the moon but their walk as well?

[a fool in paradise]

Cosmic cancer

[a fool in paradise]

Mitt Romney says you’ll need to find your own pair

[Seaplaner]

LOL!

[minnesota_bound]

What is a “sievert”?
I only understand Rems and Rads!
Don’t get me started on Joules!

[Paladin2]

"The sievert is intended to represent the stochastic health risk, which for radiation dose assessment is defined as the probability of radiation-induced cancer and genetic damage.

One sievert carries with it a 5.5% chance of eventually developing cancer based on the linear no-threshold model.[1][2]"

So here you have it....

[minnesota_bound]

So like a global warming weather prediction?

[dangus]

Damn Rads. Always blaming it on the Joules!

[Paladin2]

I suspect it is WAY better than Climate “Science”, but obviously still a statistical science.

[Rebelbase]

You think Mitt Romney would give his up?

[Rebelbase]

I remember that. Almost choked while getting my eyes poked out.

[JustaTech]

Radiation exposure is cumulative over time.

The quickest solution is to make the trip in 10 minutes or less.

[Mr. Blond]

Space is a harsh mistress. Better start the Astartes program.

[centermass_socrates]

So after the water is used as a radiation shield, are you saying its safe to drink?

Probably not

[FLT-bird]

Obviously we will need to improve shielding on spacecraft to protect astronauts for interplanetary journeys. One idea is to use the water and fuel astronauts will need in a thin internal layer to shield them - that way you don’t have to blast heavy shielding into orbit which would be prohibitively expensive to do.

[Viking2002]

Hey, the way I see it, bonus funbag!!!!

[Squeako]

I’d imagine they’ve already considered generating some sort of artificial electromagnetic field around the spacecraft.

[logi_cal869]

I have been deriding this fantasy of a manned mission to Mars since day 1 for this very reason.

Vindicated (finally).

Musk cheerleaders: Reality check.

[Vince Ferrer]

So what protected the Apollo astronauts in not only their flight to the moon but their walk as well?

Not much, except that they were only outside our magnetosphere for less than a few days. They accepted that they were going to receive higher radiation, and were gambling that there would be no spikes in radiation from solar activity.

[Ozark Tom]

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~sshepherd/research/Shielding/