Detecting Radiation In All The Wrong Places

With all of the potential for our race for exploring, colonizing and conquering future worlds, the biggest show stopper to our activities is radiation. Unless our race discovers a unique way to combat this threat, we may find ourselves living underground like the mole people.

Fortunately it seems a scientist is taking this research seriously and is developing a radiation detection device to warn astronauts when it is unsafe to stroll outside.

(SpaceRef.com) Pisacane, along with other faculty and midshipmen of the USNA, is developing a radiation detection and assessment system, called a microdosimeter, in partnership with NSBRI. The instrument will measure radiation doses on the cellular level and help determine regulatory dose limits for scientific and medical purposes.

“In space, we can’t predict when radiation events occur nor their severity, so it’s crucial to develop a rugged, light-weight, portable system that can make real-time measurements of radiation environments,” said Pisacane, R.A. Heinlein Professor of Aerospace Engineering in USNA’s Aerospace Engineering Department. “Spacesuits and spacecrafts integrated with microdosimeter sensors can help assess risk, provide warning at the onset of enhanced radiation so astronauts can take protective action, and help crews determine safe locations during these periods.”

Although both the Moon and Mars lack a global magnetic field, their fields have enough strength to provide certain zones of protection, respectively.

Unless humanity can figure out a way to create an artificial magnetic field for a planet (or enhance the world’s current field), humanity may have to resort to living within shielded biospheres indefinitely.

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