| Posted: 22 June 2026 at 8:57pm | IP Logged | 1
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BTW, for any who are not aware, "cosmic rays" is just all all the background radiation that is emitted by the billions of stars in our galaxy. Surprisingly, this background radiation is higher than the radiation that originates from our sun, except for light and heat. We are protected from the harmful effects of this radiation while we stay within Earth's magnetic field. The only astronauts exposed to cosmic rays so far were the Apollo and Artemis astronauts.
But cosmic rays become a huge deal when we start talking about a permanent moon base, a 6 month journey to Mars (the shortest path with our current technology), or a permanent base on Mars. Unless major efforts are made to shield the astronauts, they would be riddled with cancer very soon. For the moon, they are talking about an underground base because the moon is believed to have massive near-surface hollow tubes where lava once flowed. Staffing a moon base seem a lot less attractive when there is no window view of the outside,
Shielding astronauts going to Mars would likely require lead lining which is doable, but very heavy when you are trying to minimize weight.
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