Great part 1 of course. Looking forward to more. Did not know in 1972 if an Apollo mission then then all astronauts would of been killed by solar radiation. Thanks for the education.
It's doubtful that astronauts in space would be killed by a large coronal mass ejection due to all of the unfriendly energetic protons, electrons, x-rays and cosmic waves racing through. But it would be like an overdose of chest x-rays that could screw up the DNA cause cancer in future years. The future Mars astronauts would be especially at risk due to the long trip there and back and would need lead shielding that is of course really heavy and would eat up fuel. There is also danger while on the surface. It might be a good idea not to leave earths protective magnetic field until a solar minimum.
Well, you better have a lot of fuel. If I'm not mistaken Alpha and beta radiation will be stopped by the ship's hull. Gamma particles need a little over a foot of lead to stop them (and that isn't high energy particles). I read somewhere astronauts sometimes see a flash of light when their eyes are closed (a high energy particle hitting in their eye or the optic nerve or somewhere). I would think in a space ship of some sort if you were in the path of gamma rays, you'd be screwed. It's a wonder Astronauts don't suffer worse effects than they do.
Yes literally we could not live without earths protective magnetic field. That's why Mars is an unpleasant to live.
The atmosphere that protects us from UV and X-ray radiation, in doing so, becomes ionized and gives us the ionosphere, giving us long distance propagation. A rare double-win!
