Quote:
dogscoff said:
Quote:
I've also found out that about 4 inches (9cm) of water will block gamma rays, 3ft (1m) will block about 20% UV.
|
Wow, is that it? I thought it would be a lot more than that. I wonder if NASA's Mars design will have the water tanks wrapped around the ship to shield the crew from radiation. Are those the only dangerous rads to worry about out there, or would there be others?
|
Any kind of radiation harmful to humans has to react/be blocked by something on the order of the thickness of the human body, otherwise it would just go right on through without doing anything. Therefore, it should in principle be possible to build radiation shielding for any conceivable kind of harmful radiation without making it more than a few times as thick as a typical human body.