Quote:
Originally Posted by g__day
On a technical note - I remember reading that a major sun flare would have killed all the astronauts that did moon landings. Even doing the journey puts you at risk. US Scientists charted solar activity and time the landing for peak lows - and hoped no astronauts would die.
Their calucate odds were around 3-4% from recall. Basically a large flare directed towards the Earth / Moon would not be survivable if you didn't have planetary level magnetic shielding to stop high energy particles irradiating you.
I ponder could a deep underground base work - say 50-100 metres or more with large generators powering an E/M shield on the surface help? That would be plenty to stop protons from Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), cosmic rays - no so sure:
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news...n_solarflares/ |
If not a buried base, then perhaps one either on the far side or in the polar regions where some craters are in permanent shadow. That was the thesis in one of Arthur Clarke's novels (Sun Storm) I think.
Peter