Mars-Bound Probe Serves As Radiation Guinea Pig 67
sighted writes "This week's huge solar storm will benefit future astronauts, thanks to the rover Curiosity, now on its way to Mars. The rover is equipped with an instrument that measures the radiation exposure that could affect a human astronaut en route to the Red Planet. Scientists are just starting to pore over the data from the blast of particles. Don't worry about the poor robotic geologist, though: 'No harmful effects to the Mars Science Laboratory have been detected from this solar event,' says NASA."
Re:D.O.A. (Score:5, Informative)
Solar storms are important, but a small storm shelter inside the craft can, in principal, handle this. Storms are typically short, so confining the crew to this area is typically reasonable.
Re:D.O.A. (Score:4, Informative)
Nothing has really changed in the state of the art of active shielding. They all fail miserably at even the theory stage or practical engineering stage.