Re: Radiation shielding for unmanned lander on Io

On Mar 25, 2:50 am, "Alex Terrell" <alexterr...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
According to Zubrin in Entering Space, at Io orbit, radiation is 3,600
REM per day, which would probably kill a human in an hour. As for the
strengths of the fields, it should be possible to compute this given
Io's orbit and Jupiter's magnetic field strength.

At least that's not a tenth as bad off as for orbiting our nearly
naked moon. On a bad solar day, orbiting our moon could easily
contribute that 3600 REM per hour. After all, Io's atmosphere of
mostly sulfur dioxide that's providing a somewhat thin but otherwise
good enough to/from shield density that'll attenuate much of whatever
radiation potential there is to behold. Other radiation is further
moderated by having that benefit of your being within that absolutely
horrific magnetosphere of Jupiter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Io_(moon)

Actually, unless your human DNA has loads of shielding and/or a good
backup plan-B, such as having that failsafe cache of banked bone
marrow, as otherwise an hours worth of Io orbital dosage and you're in
seriously big and/or bad-ass trouble. Getting your equipment onto the
deck is essential unless all critical systems are will shielded and/or
using those three CPU methods of essentially averaging data for
obtaining the best possible science.
-
Brad Guth

.