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Shields Up: Can the "Mini-Magnetospheres" of Mars Protect Astronauts from Radiation Hazards?
Follett, Andrews
Follett, Andrews
Abstract
Mars is the next logical step for human spaceflight and the challenge of going there has been present since the Apollo missions. Excluding Earth, Mars is the only planet in our solar system which has the potential to house a new segment of human civilization (Levine, et al, 2010a), (Levine, et al, 2010b), (Levine, et al, 2010c), (Levine, et al, 2010d), (Levine, et al, 2010e), (Mitchell and Staretz, 2010). Mars, unlike other celestial bodies, has geothermal energy, water, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, crustal magnetic fields, complex geology which both created and concentrated mineral ore, and even the convenience of a nearly 24 hour day. However, quite a few impediments stand in the way of potential human exploration or colonization of Mars: dust storms, prohibitive factors for humans, back contamination, and cosmic radiation. Any of these would complicate both short term missions and prospects for established bases, colonization, and terraforming (Gill, 2007). Of these factors, in the long term the one most harmful to astronauts is almost certainly particulate radiation caused by solar winds and the far more devastating solar flares. Unlike Earth, Mars lacks the radiation protection of either a strong magnetic field driven by Coriolis forces in Earth’s core or a thick atmosphere, the absence of which would render astronauts highly vulnerable to both radiation hazards (Bertucci, 2011). This weak planetary magnetic field has serious implications for any mission to Mars (Connerney, 2001). Ultimately, the crustal fields could serve as radiation shielding for future astronauts, but only if their origins and processes are understood. This thesis attempts to examine the cause of the fields by looking at the correlations between the fields and craters, local geology, and local mineralogy.
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2013-01-01
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Geology