“We try to make it a very exciting project, and anything related to space travel is exciting,” Petridis said. The project aims to give undergraduate physics students valuable experience conducting original research. “Say, if you want to create artificial gravity through rotation, you may want to make the radius of the spacecraft as large as you can, but the bigger the radius, the bigger the magnetic field you will need for radiation shielding,” said Petridis, the project leader for MISSFIT. Also, there are countermeasures in place that have been proven to slow and stop the loss of muscle mass and bone density while in space.”Īn undergraduate team of researchers from Drake University, with the project name of Magneto-Ionization Spacecraft Shield for Interplanetary Travel, or MISSFIT, is trying to calculate the tradeoffs among different engineering solutions for radiation shielding and artificial gravity. “ had several crew members do missions approaching a year in space. I don’t think these are deal breakers for missions to Mars,” said Lee. “There are plenty of risks associated with space flight. They also tend to lose muscle mass, even when exercising as much as they do on Earth. Astronauts aboard space stations have been shown to lose 1 to 1.5 % of the mineral density in their weight-bearing bones every month. The lack of gravity can also wreak havoc on the human body given enough time. “There are enough competing factors in radiation exposure that trying to plan around the solar cycle is like trying to time the stock market, which usually results in losing,” said Kerry Lee, a radiation analyst from NASA in Houston, Texas. However, due to the complicated interplay between sun-generated radiation and cosmic rays from outer space, it may not be worth it to time the launch around these cycles. For instance, the 11-year solar cycle affects the amount of radiation the sun emits. Solar weather also plays a role in the amount of radiation you would get in space. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has set 0.05 Sv/year as the dose limit for workers who are exposed to radiation at their jobs. According to calculations by his team, high-end estimates for radiation exposure during a round trip to Mars are in the range of several Sieverts (Sv).
So, how many times more radiation would a Mars-bound astronaut experience compared to what they would experience on Earth?Įnough to be of concern, according to Athanasios Petridis, a physicist from Drake University in Des Moines. For example, radiations from energetic particles ejected from the sun behave very differently than cosmic rays from outside our galaxy. So, their spaceship would need to provide some kind of radiation shielding.ĭepending on where radiation comes from, it may be made of different particles and have different energies, which would require different means of shielding and pose different levels of danger to our radiation-prone DNA. Nasty sunburns and zero gravityĮarth’s atmosphere and magnetic field protect us from harmful space radiation, but passengers bound for Mars will lose that protection. And it’s yet another thing to make sure the people can be as healthy as they were when they left Earth.īesides packing enough fuel and air and water and food for the seven-month-long journey to Mars (and more for a return trip if you want a return ticket), there are other luxuries we enjoy here on Earth that the spaceship will have to provide if we want to stay healthy during the long flight. The company claims future versions of the rocket will be able to take 100 passengers at a time to the moon, and even Mars.īut while it’s one thing to send a rocket to Mars, it’s another to send people there alive. (Inside Science) - Back in May, SpaceX launched its Starship SN15 prototype to about the cruising altitude of a commercial airliner before landing it safely.