100 Ways to Die in Space – #10 Radiation

Welcome to 100 Ways to Die in Space

Hi there bloggies, welcome to a new and fun little feature – 100 ways to die in space. Taking inspiration from a million ways to die in the west I’ll be taking a somewhat tongue in cheek at the many and various ways that space is somewhat unkind to the average human being and it pretty effective at killing them very quickly. Step aboard and see what happens, just don’t come on wearing a red top!

Method 10 – Radiation

There’s something quite unusual about space or rather the stars especially that are in it. On the one hand the matter of the universe, hydrogen mainly seems to want to combine, get squashed and hot and fuse together. Then on the other hand these atoms seem to find themselves being torn apart and this creates radiation.

Radiation as you may be aware is not very good for humans, in fact it’s very bad for us. Any space traveller will be badly affected by any radiation bursts given off by the Sun or in radiation near the planets, including Earth. This means that the radiation is firmly in the category of natural

Spacesuits and Spaceships can only shield from this with the help of some kind of lead or water lined inner – which most of them don’t as this is heavy stuff. So for the most part missions need to time when they happen between radiation bursts, they need to monitor their exposure or they might come back with two heads… or dead.

Radiation is one of the biggest problems there could be for human spaceflight any poor soul going up there is gambling with this invisible threat and will be for along time to come – until we can find an efficient way to protect against it. But then I’m sure there are those out there who don’t believe it exists. If that’s the case… willing to test it?

© Simon Farnell 2013 – 2022

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