RadProtection

Radiation Protection for Humans in Transit

The best initial work in this area was done by Anders Jorgensen (Anders Jorgensen et. al., Acta Astronautica 60 (2007) 198 – 209). Anders evaluated the environment and presented the raw case for people in the Earth's radiation belts.

A re-evaluation with a focus on how to make manned transport up the space elevator was conducted by Brad Edwards and presented at the Luxembourg Space elevator conference in December, 2008.

There are plenty of issues in transporting people to space and simply having people in space - thermal issues, orbital debris, living space, living in zero-gravity, medical complications of extended occupation of space,... The greatest initial concern though is with radiation. Earth's radiation belts are serious and without protection can kill humans. As we will find though the intrinsic shielding of all the requirements of living in space bring us very close to making it safely.

Ongoing Work

Title:Open for Use:

Lead: Abe Becker E-mail: abrahambecker@yahoo.com Focus: find solution(s) applicable to SE for protection of personnel from ionizing radiation in Van Allen Belts, solar space weather, galactic cosmic rays.

Title: Energy Storage Options

Lead: Benjamin Klamm E-mail: bklamm@utsi.edu Focus: find solution(s) applicable to SE for protection of personnel from ionizing radiation in Van Allen Belts, solar space weather, galactic cosmic rays.

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