No. This is a real problem. Especially at relativistic speeds.
Agree it'll be a problem when we can travel at relativistic speeds. But to go to Mars, RA? Nothing a few inches of steel plate won't fix.
I thought cosmic rays were protons. Seems you could deflect them with an electric or magnetic field.
I would think a good thick cement-like slabs from the moon and/or asteroids would do the trick.
Or frozen water/waste tanks surrounding the outside, with the people in the chewy inside. (For some reason, I vaguely recall water ice having better cosmic ray reflection than liquid water -- something to do with the crystal structure overlapping better so that rays would not so easily bounce through. Never quite sure I believed it.)
That's an interesting comment. I assume you are serious. Why would relativistic speed make a difference?
They're getting nowhere near relativistic speeds, unless you mean the impacing particles.
I think it may be a very real problem too.
I have a couple of old cans of lead paint in my garage. Maybe NASA could paint the spaceship to Mars with it. (hope they like skyblue pink)
No, it's a problem if you stay out there too long. Make the trip in six weeks instead of 9 months using a nuclear rocket, and the problem goes away.
Fire up a magnetic field around the ship using the massive power given by a nuclear reactor, and the cosmic rays go around the ship, and you can spend 6 months getting to Jupiter.
Cosmic radiation is only a problem in space travel if you don't use nuclear power.
How about generating a miniature Van Allen radiation belt around the ship with magnetic fields, focussing any infall at the best-shielded areas?