NASA seeking Ideas to safeguard human on Mars journey - Polidicks

[QUOTE=Swebonny;47562516]Take the shit and piss from astronauts and fill the walls with it. Once it reaches Mars the ship it's more or less a big lump of shit, which is perfect because it can be used to grow stuff in. After spending a year on Mars, flowers and potatoes are growing all over the ship both inside and outside. It'll be amazing.[/QUOTE] There's a really good book that came out last year that runs with this idea and explores the difficulties (and successes) of it, among other things. [url=http://www.amazon.com/Martian-Andy-Weir/dp/0553418025/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1429540665&sr=8-1&keywords=mars+book]The Martian.[/url]

[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;47562718]I have a great solution. Lets genetically modify our space explorers with the DNA of [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deinococcus_radiodurans]Deinococcus radiodurans[/url]. [/QUOTE] just make walls out of that stuff instead [editline]20th April 2015[/editline] like this [img_thumb]http://i.imgur.com/vyHjidd.png[/img_thumb]

[QUOTE=JeanLuc761;47562832]There's a really good book that came out last year that runs with this idea and explores the difficulties (and successes) of it, among other things. [url=http://www.amazon.com/Martian-Andy-Weir/dp/0553418025/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1429540665&sr=8-1&keywords=mars+book]The Martian.[/url][/QUOTE] Ah, that's where I've read it. Definitely a good book, must read for any space enthusiast.

At this distance, for a large mission large scale solar would become less useful. You can't ship a larger solar farm like the ISS's to power your entire craft. Nuclear becomes more of a requirement.

Wrap the rocket in sunflowers. The inside of the ship will be full of sunflowers.

[QUOTE=mecaguy03;47562142]This makes me wonder how the molecular structure of a material effects its cross section with regards to high energy particles. Most cosmic rays are high energy protons and helium nuclei, so I imagine materials with a high neutron cross section would also have a high cross section for high energy protons. Pretty much all cosmic rays are either negatively charged in the case of electrons or positively charged in the case of the high energy nuclei of several elements. Gadolinium is not radioactive and it has a very high neutron cross section, however it is rather dense. Possibly some kind of barrier with a high number of cations could filter the anions from cosmic rays with greater efficiency?[/QUOTE] Boron has a rather high neutron cross section, and it's plentiful/low weight.

[QUOTE=Axsisel;47562538]I always thought that in the future the spaceships would be filled with server racks instead of people. We would upload our minds and digitalize our bodies and the moment we reached our destination our bodies would be rebuilt from cloning/3d printing machines. That way we could insert hundreds of people into a relatively small ship and they wouldn't age. Maybe one day...[/QUOTE] Or just bring a small population with thousands of sperm/egg samples and some kind of artificial womb

Couldn't we just cover the craft with mirrors?

[QUOTE=NightmareX91;47563109]Couldn't we just cover the craft with mirrors?[/QUOTE] Gamma Rays don't have reflections, they're vampires

If we're sending astronauts to Mars, I get the feeling we either go big or not at all.

but yeah, we could just use lead for gamma radiation.

This is what I'm devoting my summer too, I'm finally going to be able to put my Electrodynamics knowledge to use.

just build a ladder big enough to reach mars and climb it, jesus

[QUOTE=BANNED 4EVER;47563186]just build a ladder big enough to reach mars and climb it, jesus[/QUOTE] That sounds like a lot of effort to climb though, wouldn't a water slide be more fun

Build a series of torus shaped rings with build-in reactors that can dynamically align to create optimal routes from Earth to Mars and from which are deployed flexible rods that connect to each other to absorb GCRs and mitigate how much the ship absorbs. It'd be dumb and insanely inefficient but hey a giant torus space highway would look cool as fuck.

[QUOTE=helpiminabox;47563223]That sounds like a lot of effort to climb though, wouldn't a water slide be more fun[/QUOTE] But then we'd need to generate a gravitational field to stop the water from floating off when we're in space. Plus, space is fucking freezing. Getting wet in space would be a nightmare.

[QUOTE=Ganerumo;47563238]Build a series of torus shaped rings with build-in reactors that can dynamically align to create optimal routes from Earth to Mars and from which are deployed flexible rods that connect to each other to absorb GCRs and mitigate how much the ship absorbs. It'd be dumb and insanely inefficient but hey a giant torus space highway would look cool as fuck.[/QUOTE] Reminds me of Freelancer.

[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;47562718]I have a great solution. Lets genetically modify our space explorers with the DNA of [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deinococcus_radiodurans]Deinococcus radiodurans[/url]. And there won't be any reason to shield them at all whatsoever, they will just chill there, catching that sick gamma ray tan and be all fine. I mean, we might have to look into the compatibility of how would the entire "multiple copies of DNA per cell" deal work in eukaryotic beings like humans, but as a long term deal it sounds like a pretty damn amazing prospect to me. Imagine people being extremely resistant to all kinds of ionizing radiation, as well as random cancer. It would be like IRL superpower.[/QUOTE] Hell, give that idea to Japan, since they would enjoy that and people then can resettle around Fukushima again.

[QUOTE=Private Zoglow;47562995]just make walls out of that stuff instead [editline]20th April 2015[/editline] like this [img_thumb]http://i.imgur.com/vyHjidd.png[/img_thumb][/QUOTE] That wouldn't help. The bacteria don't stop the radiation at all, they just let it pass through them and are able to repair the eventual damage it may cause.

[QUOTE=Ganerumo;47563238]Build a series of torus shaped rings with build-in reactors that can dynamically align to create optimal routes from Earth to Mars and from which are deployed flexible rods that connect to each other to absorb GCRs and mitigate how much the ship absorbs. It'd be dumb and insanely inefficient but hey a giant torus space highway would look cool as fuck.[/QUOTE] well its not actually that inefficient the problem is newton's laws either requires massive reaction thrusters on the toruses (defeating the purpose) or have them be a few orders of magnitude greater in mass than the ships they accelerate, which again defeats the purpose. a big linear accelerator in space at both earth and mars would greatly cut down on the costs since the ships would only need to have enough fuel to manuver into the recieving accelerator which would decelerate them, but they would require large fuel supplies to counteract the thrust [editline]20th April 2015[/editline] [QUOTE=NightmareX91;47563243]But then we'd need to generate a gravitational field to stop the water from floating off when we're in space. Plus, space is fucking freezing. Getting wet in space would be a nightmare.[/QUOTE] space is neither cold nor hot, facing something hot or being shielded from something hot determine whether you're cold or hot.

Anyone know if carbon aerogel has any radiation-blocking properties, or whether or not it could be laced with another material?

[QUOTE=ewitwins;47563615]Anyone know if carbon aerogel has any radiation-blocking properties, or whether or not it could be laced with another material?[/QUOTE] Not really, if any, the main point of mass shielding is to have high density and a high atomic/neutron cross section. Aerogel is [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerogel#Carbon"]ultra low density[/URL] and carbon has a rather low [URL="http://periodictable.com/Properties/A/NeutronCrossSection.bt.log.html"]neutron cross section[/URL] not to mention that it transmutes into another element rather easily, thus not holding alot of nuclear stability compared to lead, boron, etc. Also, for space travel, multipurposing materials is a plus if not a full blown requirement. That's why water bags/urine bags are typically used for shielding.

Send midgets. Use additional weight allowances from less food, water, clothing, etc for shielding. A colony made entirely of little people! And now you know where ewoks came from. You're welcome, world.

[QUOTE=ewitwins;47563615]Anyone know if carbon aerogel has any radiation-blocking properties, or whether or not it could be laced with another material?[/QUOTE] think its mostly used for its lack of thermal conductivity and super light weight, typically radiation shielding works by making layers of dense stuff

Density is not necessarily the goal when you are trying to shield from radiation mostly made of protons. When you want to shield from neutrons I know you need to capture them in nuclei, and as such some elements have a naturally high neutron cross section.

[IMG]http://www.angelfire.com/stars2/projectorion/orionorbiting.gif[/IMG] There. Now you can have all the lead radiation shielding you want! Because you'll need it.

[QUOTE=Used Car Salesman;47565479][IMG]http://www.angelfire.com/stars2/projectorion/orionorbiting.gif[/IMG] There. Now you can have all the lead radiation shielding you want! Because you'll need it.[/QUOTE] actually, the plasma generated from the implosion charges, and the beryllium shape-charge that pushes on the orion would negate most of the radiation, plus you have probably the best shield of hundreds of nuclear weapons to block the radiation ulam designed the bombs for that specifically to minimize radiation, while maximizing impulse

[sp]Put David Cameron on the ship, then the rays won't want to come near the ship and the passengers will be safe.[/sp] Well, Lead is quite a heavy material, so coating the ship in it will weigh it down a lot, if I'm not mistaken, isn't Iodine supposed to be a good absorber of radiation?

[QUOTE=Angry pepper;47565763][sp]Put David Cameron on the ship, then the rays won't want to come near the ship and the passengers will be safe.[/sp] Well, Lead is quite a heavy material, so coating the ship in it will weigh it down a lot, if I'm not mistaken, isn't Iodine supposed to be a good absorber of radiation?[/QUOTE] Iodine is not an exceptionally good absorber of radiation, its just used to protect against radioactive iodine by taking its place in the thyroid gland, where it would normally accumulate. Ok so electromagnetic radiation is basically stopped by electrons, which means it scales with mass basically, with heavier elements having more electrons in a given volume. Radiation is not limited to electromagnetic radiation however, and 90% of cosmic radiation is from high energy protons, which I dont think are stopped by electrons, so straight lead wont be as efficient as something like gadolinium which is analogous to a really big target for particles like neutrons and probably protons as well. Funny thing is that the cross section of atoms is measured in barns.

[QUOTE=SinjinOmega;47562183]How outrageous are we talking about, like more then a Nuclear Reactor?[/QUOTE] nuclear reactors are not great in space due to really really bad heat exchange. Nuclear batteries are a bit different of course.