Radiation Protection
On our planet Earth, due to our magnetic shielding created from the Earth’s ironic core, had protected us from harmful radiation from space. The Ozone layer had saved us from ultraviolet rays, and prevented us from getting skin cancer.
It is amazing how incapable we are without the same conditions we have on Earth, and is truly a miracle for us to survive. And in Destino Magnus, we must create the virtual copy of protection from radiation.
In space, there are many high speed and powerful particles and radiation bombarding anything, and since ionizing an atom requires a few eV, harmful particles exceeding KeV or MeV could simply ionize hundreds of atoms. Ionizing can be rally harmful when ionization occurs on a living thing. By ionizing an atom in a cell, it can disrupt its chemistry, and make harm to life. Alpha particles are a type of radiation, which is actually a helium nucleus without any electrons around it. A single sheet of paper could block these, and clothing would completely block all alpha particles. Beta particles are electrons with neutrinos from the decay of a single neutron, and could come from tritium, strontium 90, and carbon 14. But a thin layer of metal or clothing could easily block these. Gamma rays, on the other hand, is a line of photons, but these are almost not hazardous and could be absorbed by skin, but gamma rays with higher power must be protected by lead or hard blocks of metal.
Galactic Cosmic Rays [GCRs] are radiation from supernova explosions when a star runs out of fuel and reach to an end of falling from its own extreme gravity, and explode. Highly energetic nuclei would be spewed out, and could corrupt or damage the communication programs on Destino Magnus.
On Ganymede, it has his own electromagnetic protection, since it has a metallic core. It is also within Jupiter’s great radiation field, blocking the major radiation from the universe. But we will still have some exposure to minimum radiation.
Since we will be living on the settlement exposure to space for decades, possibly centuries, we cannot have the aluminum method, since after years of meeting strong radiation, the aluminum shield would soon wear out, and would not be efficient. Then why can’t we just have our own electromagnetic shield like Earth on Destino Magnus? We would need to have a system that’ll create an electrostatic charge to flick off harmful rays including Gamma rays, X-rays, ß rays [from the decay of a neutron], Protons, Neutrons and Alpha Particles. We need multiple electrically charged objects set along the settlement. One needs to be positively charged, and others need to be negatively charged, and their combination would be able to repel high-energy protons and ß rays. But since we will be using amounts of electricity in the settlement, we would need to suggest a system to control the magnetism to prevent electrical problems.
Since this method cannot block all amount of radiation, we can use other atoms in order to block radiation. We will not use dense and complicated atoms, since it may decay into other elements, which could be as bad as getting radiation. We could use the simplest atom, Hydrogen. Since Hydrogen can no longer break apart into smaller atoms, it is possible for us to filter radiation. We could use condensed hydrogen gas, but more likely liquid hydrogen. By creating a new layer of the settlement, we could cover it with liquid hydrogen, and is likely for Hydrogen to stay liquid at space’s temperatures. Hydrogen can be taken from stars and nebula, where we could supply our selves with sufficient amount of liquid hydrogen.
In order to activate decontamination and emergency sequences when radiation is far over the dose limit in Destino Magnus, we would first need to detect them first. The most feasible and portable radiation detectors would be Geiger-Mueller counters. These could detect photons, alpha, beta, and gamma [powerful photon] radiation, except for neutrons. When the gas reacts by ionizing from the radiation, it would then alert the existence of high radiation by signals such as display, and light. The gases that are in the Geiger-Mueller counters would be argon, helium, or neon, which could be found easily at nearby planets.
Biological Effects from Radiation
All living organisms are made of cells, and these contain large amounts of water, while the cytoplasm is made out of hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorous, and sulfur. Because of its molecular structure, radiation plays a big part in effect.
100+ gray- central nervous system defected, coordination problems such as breathing, death in 1-2 days.
9-100 gray- gastrointestinal tract damage, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea. Dehydration, emaciated, death in 1-2 weeks
3-9 grays- bone marrow and hemorrhage, inflammation and emaciation pneumonia to death. Loss of appetite and hair. Bone marrow transplant saves lives. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy for cancer.
3- grays- rarely lethal.
Dose limits from ICRP
Tissue or organ |
Dose limit (mSv) |
Weighting factor |
Gonads |
80 |
0.25 |
Red bone marrow |
167 |
0.12 |
Colon |
167 |
0.12 |
Lung |
167 |
0.12 |
Stomach |
167 |
0.12 |
Bladder |
400 |
0.05 |
Breast |
400 |
0.05 |
Liver |
400 |
0.05 |
Esophagus |
400 |
0.05 |
Thyroid |
400 |
0.05 |
Skin |
2000 |
0.01 |
Bone Surfaces |
2000 |
0.01 |
Remainder |
400 |
0.05 |
Whole Body |
20 |
1.00 |
|
