Posted on 08/03/2023 6:38:40 AM PDT by Jan_Sobieski
The radiation belts around Earth are loaded with dangerous protons and electrons that can damage spacecraft. Now researchers are launching experiments to see if they can clear away the high-energy particles that pose the hazard by blasting them with radio waves.
When humans began exploring space, the first major find was the Van Allen radiation belts, doughnut-shaped zones of magnetically trapped, highly energetic charged particles. The Van Allen belts consist mainly of two rings: The inner belt starts roughly 1000 kilometers above Earth’s surface and extends up to 9600 km, while the outer belt stretches from about 13 500 to 58 000 km above Earth. The location and shapes of the belts can vary, and they can even merge completely.
High-energy protons are found within the area of the inner belt, whose size remains generally stable over the course of years to decades. The outer belt, on the other hand, is home to high-energy electrons and can vary dramatically in size and shape over the course of hours or days.
The huge amounts of radiation in the Van Allen belts can pose major risks for the host of satellites that pass through or orbit within these swaths of space. There are ways to make spacecraft more resistant against this radiation. For instance, spikes on their surfaces known as electron emitters can radiate away excess lower-energy electrons that might otherwise accumulate and cause a spark. In addition, shielding can help keep high-energy protons and electrons from penetrating nonconducting materials and building up inside them, which could lead to a damaging discharge…
(Excerpt) Read more at spectrum.ieee.org ...
Earth has a magnetic field, which traps high energy particles emitted by the Sun. The relationship between the particles' energy and the magnetic field strength leads to particles being trapped at specific altitudes and latitudes.
Here's visualization of them:
The paper’s conclusion:
Accountability and Responsibility
The confusion between the Apollo record accounts, the various measuring systems of both time and distance – and when it comes to crewed space flights beyond LEO, the sheer avoidance of this region by all the space agencies to date, is proof enough that crewed Apollo missions were not sent through these belts. For had they done so, the agencies would be quite happy to send astronauts through them now.
The excuse that modern technology requires more stringent measures might have some relevance when it comes to hardware, but it does not stand up to scrutiny when it comes to human crews. Bio-organisms are as vulnerable today as they were in the 1960s. And to repeat, the radiation belts are as difficult to negotiate today as they were in the 1960s. Ignorance is not bliss in this particular instance, a fact with which Lockheed Martin would concur.
Lockheed Martin has ostensibly set out three levels of consideration when it comes to protecting human crews from space radiation.15 On Earth and in LEO where the ISS orbits, the protection is required to produce as low a risk as is reasonably achievable. And then deep space is referred to separately from the intended crewed visits to Mars and the Moon (cislunar space is the distance from LEO to the Moon’s orbit) and once again, the time factor used to differentiate these two expeditions and environments.
Fig. 18
Fig 18. Lockheed Martin’s banner associated with its research into radiation protection for astronauts. The acronym ALARA could just as well be ALARM – since even LEO is not entirely safe for the ISS when it travels through the South Atlantic Anomaly, image: Lockheed Martin.
If there is no level of exposure to radiation considered safe now, as the conditions of space remain the same, there certainly wasn’t any additional safety for astronauts during the Apollo period. Nor would it be necessary to differentiate between similar environments using the length of voyage as the excuse. The length of voyage certainly increases the risks for the bio organism but those risks are extant from the start of any voyage beyond LEO. And If as many would assert, it was simply a matter of ‘going very fast through the Van Allen belts avoiding the dangerous bits’, crewed exploration of space would be much further along today, and none of Braeunig’s data mix-ups, and other inaccurate and deliberately confusing statements concerning the Apollo record would be necessary.
Former NASA administrator Sean O’Keefe, attempted to retain Apollo mythology while making statements about Elon Musk’s Starship ‘enterprise’ when he noted:
“I remain cautious about Starship’s deeper-space capabilities for humans, despite its size and innovation, given that it relies on the same chemical propulsion systems used in spaceflight since Yuri Gagarin took the first trip and Alan Shepard was right behind him in 1961.
Mars is 65m miles away… Cutting the distance can only be achieved if you add space propulsion and right now we have none of that. We have no means to achieve it. No one on this rock knows how to do that.
“The second thing we don’t have is the means to provide shielding sufficient to preserve human life. As it stands, the radioactivity is so extraordinary you wouldn’t make it, much less get back. Those are the two fundamental limitations I see to anyone being able to achieve anything much beyond the lunar objective at this stage.” 16
O’Keefe surely knows that ‘deeper space’ is a misleading description. Deep space is everywhere beyond LEO and that includes Earth’s protective region of the Van Allen belts with their unpredictable accelerated particle activity – and the totally unprotected surface of the Moon. As Lockheed Martin clearly states:
“There is currently no level of exposure considered safe.”
Xavier Pascal and Aulis Editors
Additional input from Jarrah White
Aulis Online, January 2022
See SkyNet...
Sounds like a self-loathing, Leftist Anger Dream.
Need a James Bond or Dark Batman type to stop crazed, evil, super villans like these Communist sado-masacists.
Yoh notice how you only ever hear about the dreaded Van Allen Belts when it pertains to moon landing hoaxers?
What could go wrong?
I am sure somebody is gonna come out with a personal “van Allen belt” app that creates a magnetic field around oneself using a smart phone. Who cares about the rest of the earth as long as I am safe? Be made by slave labor in China.
Understanding the environment, Van Allen Belts included, is a noble endeavor. Trying to change them is somebody with a ‘I have a solution in search of a problem’ mentality.
That first paragraph is one of the stupidest and most illogical things I have ever read. “Billy Madison”, blabbering about the Pokey Little Puppy, made more sense. Seeing it posted immediately below a visualization of the Van Allen radiation belts, really highlights the authors’ complete lack of knowledge, understanding, intelligence, and honesty.
But go ahead ... believe them if you like. Some folks are convinced Sasquatch exists. Some folks think “gun control” reduces crime.
They don’t. This is the typical commie trash response to anything that might make it more difficult for him to dip his snout into the trough on social programs — programs that never have any cost/benefit features or any after-review to determine if they were effective or were just troughs.
As to the belts, treat it like an arms race: bullets, then armor, bigger bullets, better armor.
Anything can be shielded against anything if you have the energy.
From what I have read the earths magnetic field is weakening much faster than previously measured. That will weaken the Van Allen Belt strength. What happens if the strength of the magnetic field is not cyclical(wax and wane) ,but linear(wane)? We may not have to worry about going through the VAB...we may not survive.
Captain Crane and Admiral Nelson blasted that away in the early 60s
me too the series is on me tv recorded all of them Kawolski Del Monroe hate him well just wish i had his hair fugger
I think the earth’s magnetic field is what creates the Van Allen belts and “protects the Earth from cosmic radiation” — the belts are basically the cosmic radiation (charged particles at high energies) from which we’ve been protected.
"proof enough"?
What that proves is (a) we don't* have man-rated rockets big enough; and (b) there's no mission requiring humans to be out there on a regular basis.
*more accurately, didn't have them after retiring the Saturn V. Both the SLS and Starship (when/if it flies successfully) will be capable, however.
You see the logical fallacy, I hope. “Didn’t do X” is not “proof enough” that “didn’t do X because of reason Y”. I just gave you two good reasons other than “Y” which justify not doing “X”.
Why would anyone bother to send monkeys up that high? We can send instruments that can accurately measure radiation and get actually data, rather than “monkey died,” “monkey threw up and lost hair”, “monkey seems fine but developed leukemia 6 months later”, and other useless datapoints. It’s also a lot cheaper to send the instruments. They don’t need life support.
Well it’s not like nothing could go wrong or anything like that. /s
Executive summary: Apollo used trajectories above and below the highest-radiation areas of the belts, and traversed them pretty quickly. All of the astronauts wore dosimeters. The total radiation received was in the 0.5 rad neighborhood, except for Apollo 14, which received 1.15 rad. Nasa's tolerable limit was 400 rads whole-body and 50 rads to blood-forming organs.
Still, a certain amount of luck was involved. A very strong solar storm could have caused problems or even killed the astronauts.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.