[Baron Munchausen]

It's not that their medical records are private, it's that the reason we stopped going to the moon is classified. Don't misattribute my reasoning.

It's true that we don't have to be dependent on the magnetic field of the earth in a 'positive' sense. It could indeed be what it shields us from, but the effect is the same. We are dependent on the earth until (and unless) we can understand what happens to people who leave. It might not be as simple as putting shielding on starships. The current concept of 'shielding' is to keep the radiation levels down below what would be considered 'dangerous' but NOT on duplicating the ambient level of radiation at the surface of the earth. Is it really certain that high(er) levels of radiation for weeks or years won't have serious effects on people? Just because people who live at high altitudes get marginally higher radiation than those of us at sea level, or people who work at nuclear facilities get occasionally higher doses, don't immediately crack up and get put in the loony bin doesn't mean that the completely different radiation outside the earth's magnetic field -- or possibly the lack of the usual types of radiation that we experience here on earth -- might do very surprising things to our biology that could higher mental functions. Especially over the weeks and months and years of interplanetary travel. People at high altitude or working at nuclear facilities are still within the earth's normal environment, they just get some 'extra' radiaton on top of the usual ambient stuff.

[ March 28, 2004, 02:29: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]