Will it be safe for humans to fly to Mars?
Mission would be viable if it doesn't exceed four years, international research team concludes

Date:
August 26, 2021
Source:
University of California - Los Angeles
Summary:
A human space mission would be viable if it doesn't exceed four
years, an international research team concludes in new research.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Sending human travelers to Mars would require scientists and engineers
to overcome a range of technological and safety obstacles. One of them
is the grave risk posed by particle radiation from the sun, distant
stars and galaxies.


========================================================================== Answering two key questions would go a long way toward overcoming that
hurdle: Would particle radiation pose too grave a threat to human life throughout a round trip to the red planet? And, could the very timing
of a mission to Mars help shield astronauts and the spacecraft from
the radiation? In a new article published in the peer-reviewed journal
Space Weather, an international team of space scientists, including
researchers from UCLA, answers those two questions with a "no" and a
"yes." That is, humans should be able to safely travel to and from
Mars, provided that the spacecraft has sufficient shielding and the
round trip is shorter than approximately four years. And the timing of
a human mission to Mars would indeed make a difference: The scientists determined that the best time for a flight to leave Earth would be when
solar activity is at its peak, known as the solar maximum.

The scientists' calculations demonstrate that it would be possible to
shield a Mars-bound spacecraft from energetic particles from the sun
because, during solar maximum, the most dangerous and energetic particles
from distant galaxies are deflected by the enhanced solar activity.

A trip of that length would be conceivable. The average flight to
Mars takes about nine months, so depending on the timing of launch and available fuel, it is plausible that a human mission could reach the
planet and return to Earth in less than two years, according to Yuri
Shprits, a UCLA research geophysicist and co-author of the paper.

"This study shows that while space radiation imposes strict limitations on
how heavy the spacecraft can be and the time of launch, and it presents technological difficulties for human missions to Mars, such a mission
is viable," said Shprits, who also is head of space physics and space
weather at GFZ Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam, Germany.

The researchers recommend a mission not longer than four years because
a longer journey would expose astronauts to a dangerously high amount
of radiation during the round trip -- even assuming they went when it
was relatively safer than at other times. They also report that the
main danger to such a flight would be particles from outside of our
solar system.

Shprits and colleagues from UCLA, MIT, Moscow's Skolkovo Institute of
Science and Technology and GFZ Potsdam combined geophysical models of
particle radiation for a solar cycle with models for how radiation would
affect both human passengers -- including its varying effects on different bodily organs - - and a spacecraft. The modeling determined that having a spacecraft's shell built out of a relatively thick material could help
protect astronauts from radiation, but that if the shielding is too
thick, it could actually increase the amount of secondary radiation to
which they are exposed.

The two main types of hazardous radiation in space are solar energetic particles and galactic cosmic rays; the intensity of each depends on
solar activity. Galactic cosmic ray activity is lowest within the six
to 12 months after the peak of solar activity, while solar energetic
particles' intensity is greatest during solar maximum, Shprits said.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
University_of_California_-_Los_Angeles. Original written by Stuart
Wolpert. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. M.I. Dobynde, Y.Y. Shprits, A.Yu. Drozdov, J. Hoffman,
J. Li. Beating 1
Sievert: Optimal Radiation Shielding of Astronauts on a Mission
to Mars.

Space Weather, 2021; DOI: 10.1029/2021SW002749 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/08/210826111716.htm

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