New Mars Forums

Ian

Member

Registered: 2002-01-08

Posts: 236

Re: The amount of raidation doses on the way to Mars - Radiation doses on the way to Mars

Maybe a probe could be launched on the way to Mars to measure the amount of radiation in order to determine the exact amount of radiation that's between Earth and Mars orbit. That would probably correct the New York Times' charts of the amounts of radiation.

RobS

Banned

From: South Bend, IN

Registered: 2002-01-15

Posts: 1,701

Website

Re: The amount of raidation doses on the way to Mars - Radiation doses on the way to Mars

There's nothing constant to measure because the radiation in that zone comes from the sun and from cosmic sources. The cosmic sources are the same everywhere in the solar system and the sun is variable. We can predict the radiation in the Earth to Mars zone, I think, about as well as we can predict the Earth's weather.

Have you seen Zubrin's response? I think I just read it on spacedaily.com.

       -- RobS

Ian

Member

Registered: 2002-01-08

Posts: 236

Re: The amount of raidation doses on the way to Mars - Radiation doses on the way to Mars

Maybe we can place a space probe in orbit around the sun in that zone between Mars and Earth. Then we could probably forcast the space weather there better.

RobertDyck

Moderator

From: Winnipeg, Canada

Registered: 2002-08-20

Posts: 7,924

Website

Re: The amount of raidation doses on the way to Mars - Radiation doses on the way to Mars

The MARIE instrument on Odyssey did measure the radiation on the way to Mars, and in Mars orbit. NASA has a couple other probes to study the sun, Genesis and Ulysses. The joint ESA/NASA mission SOHO is specifically design to study the Sun and space weather. The probes are already there.