Dangers in space travel.

One of the recurring dangers in traveling to space are the Van Allen belts, they are ring-shaped areas, like a doughnut, they are around our planet and it is where the Earth's magnetic field traps high-energy charged particles such as electrons, protons that normally come from the solar wind, but also sometimes cosmic rays are trapped there, they enter like a circuit and are trapped without ending up impacting the earth, which is wonderful for us, that is, these belts are actually shields, They protect us from that solar radiation and cosmic radiation.

There are three, but the third was recently discovered, but it is quite diffuse and normally forms or becomes more “solid” when there is a strong solar storm, but there are two main ones, the most intense is between 600 km high and 13,000 km high, the International Space Station and China are below that height, they are around 400 km. And then there is the external one, which is weaker, which is between 19,000 and 40,000 km high.

The question is, are they deadly? The answer is, yes, they are deadly, but only if you stay in them, the Apollo missions took approximately 52 to 60 minutes to cross the Van Allen belts on their way to the moon and the same amount of time to return, for the radiation in the Van Allen belts to be fatal, a person would have to remain in them, evidently inside their spacecraft for an extended period of the order of weeks to months, approximately 70 days. what is calculated on average in the internal zone, in the internal belt, in the external one, well you could stay longer because it is weaker.

The space stations are also below what is the lower Van Allen belt, therefore, they are safe, in fact, the space stations are still protected by these belts and by the protective magnetic field of the Earth. They are not really in space, we call them space stations, because it almost looks pretty, but they are not really in space, they are still in an outer layer of the outer layers of the Earth's atmosphere and protected by the Earth's magnetic field and this is not going to happen on the Moon.

A lunar space station is planned to be built on the Moon, which will orbit the moon, apart from the base and this station would not be protected by the Earth's magnetic field, nor would the astronauts who were on the surface of the Moon be protected. So the question is, how dangerous is cosmic and solar radiation on the lunar surface?

The danger on the lunar surface depends as in the other case, it also depends on the times, the amount of time you have and the protection you have, on Earth we have the protection of the magnetic field and also the atmosphere, because the atmosphere also serves as a shield against cosmic radiation and solar radiation, but on the Moon, obviously, there is neither of those two things, curiously, the most precise measurements come from the Chinese mission Changa 4 in 2019, which recorded on average that the surface of the Moon receives about 200 times more radiation than the Earth's surface and 2.6 times more radiation than that received at the International Space station.

Look at the data, 2.6 times more radiation on the Moon than the international space station, this is a reference data to verify that the space stations are also still protected a little by the Earth's magnetic field, but on the Moon there is none, during the Apollo missions with the basic protections of the space suits and the eagle module, it has been calculated that the fatal dose for a human would be after accumulating radiation after several years, yes, it sounds a little impressive, but that's how it is. For up to more than 5 years, a human could be with protection similar to what they would have in the Eagle module of the Apollo mission and with their space suit for up to 5 years, even a little more, receiving doses of radiation, from that moment on it would be dangerous.

The problem is not the cosmic radiation if you do not stay more than 5 years, the problem is the solar storms, therein lies the tricky issue, solar storms completely change the panorama, you could receive a fatal dose in just a few days or a couple of weeks depending on the intensity of the solar storm and even with a catastrophic solar storm type G5 of those that occur from time to time every 20 years, something like that, you could receive a fatal dose in just a few hours, that with a basic shielding, type like those on the Apollo mission.

For that you have to build a lunar base and lunar bases are not as they sometimes appear with their glass greenhouses, with their windows looking at the earth and these beautiful things, no, they are not going to be like that. They are going to be bunkers, above is a design by the European Space Agency, the European Space Agency is within the Artemis program as well, so the experience they are developing to build a lunar base should be applied to the construction of that lunar base where NASA is going to be as well, that is, the part of the European Space Agency is to provide some technical support and also be a kind of architects when it comes to building that lunar base when it is built.

To be safe inside that lunar base you would have to have at least a coverage of between 10 to 20 cm of lunar regolith, lunar regolith is the dust and rocks of the moon, which could be easily moved because with a robot of this type of excavator, it will accumulate it on top of the structure of the base, for intense solar storms you need more, between 30 to 50 cm of coverage and to guarantee complete security for years and years, if it occurred to you to live there permanently, both from storms and constant cosmic radiation, the ideal would be a protection of 2 to 3 meters, therefore, the ideal habitats for humans on the Moon and Mars are also considered to be caves or volcanic tunnels.

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