Tuesday, June 6, 2017

Damage from Cosmic Rays Increases Cancer Risks for Mars Astronauts #Science

Likely if you have considered space at all, you're aware there's a whole lot of radiation in a wealth of frequencies and the current research tries to determine the extent to which that increases risks for going to Mars.


The cancer risk for a human mission to Mars has effectively doubled following a UNLV study predicting a dramatic increase in the disease for astronauts traveling to the red planet or on long-term missions outside the protection of Earth's magnetic field.

The findings appeared in the May issue of Scientific Reports and were presented by UNLV scientist Francis Cucinotta, a leading scholar on radiation and space physics.

Science Daily:  Collateral damage from cosmic rays increases cancer risks for Mars astronauts

Something which was known to be a danger is now observed to be even more of a danger and the interested student is invited to review the paper to fully understand the extent of the danger but there isn't a recommendation on what to do about it.

Cucinotta said the findings show a tremendous need for additional studies focused on cosmic ray exposures to tissues that dominate human cancer risks, and that these should begin prior to long-term space missions outside the Earth's geomagnetic sphere.

- SD



These hairless rats apparently got that way naturally but this wrinkling doesn't even go fractionally the distance toward pictures I saw of lab rats and the consequences of nuclear experimentation in the Fifties.


There are two general ways to protect against radiation.  One is lead and the other is a planetary atmosphere.  Given the absence of both in a readily obtainable way on Mars, this takes the Rockhouse back to the Age of Robos.

Ed:  you want to send robo lead miners to Mars?

Yep.  Instead or in addition to training these bullshit glad-hand AI systems, use some of that AI for robos which find lead, dig it up, and present it in some useable form for humans.

Ed:  living inside sealed-off caves would serve for a time on Mars for that kind of protection and more.

True enough, mate, but first you have to find those caves and how many Astros are you willing to sacrifice to do that.  In the Rockhouse view, that sacrifice count is zero since we can build robos with faster locomotion, better sensing, and any number of other capabilities which make them vastly better  suited to the task.

For the moment, we will leave terraforming on the sidelines although Elon Musk has some interesting ideas on how to do it but that overextends the current point insofar as Astros have to live long enough to get the point of any ability to begin terraforming.  Therefore, that will be held in abeyance for this time.

No comments: