"...send Odungo up, we'll be radiation free for a billion years"
Posted on 03/03/2013 8:28:32 AM PST by James C. Bennett
Astronauts onboard a privately-funded expedition to Mars in 2018 will use their own faeces to protect themselves against cosmic radiation.
The couple during the Inspiration Mars mission, funded by multimillionaire Dennis Tito, and set to fly-by the Red Planet in 2018 will face cramped conditions, muscle atrophy and potential boredom.
However, their greatest health risk comes from exposure to the radiation from cosmic rays, 'New Scientist' reported.
The project will develop a radiation shield for the spacecraft by lining its walls with human waste, among other materials.
"It's a little queasy sounding, but there's no place for that material to go, and it makes great radiation shielding," said Taber MacCallum, a member of the team funded by Tito who announced the audacious plan earlier. Solid and liquid human waste products would be put into bags and used as a radiation shield - as well as being dehydrated so that any water can be recycled for drinking, McCallum said.
"Dehydrate them as much as possible, because we need to get the water back," he said.
"Those solid waste products get put into a bag, put right back against the wall," said MacCallum, adding food too could be used as a radiation shield.
"Food is going to be stored all around the walls of the spacecraft, because food is good radiation shielding," he said.
This would not be dangerous as the food would merely be blocking the radiation, it would not become a radioactive source, the report said.
Water has long been suggested as a shielding material for interplanetary space missions.
"Water is better than metals for protection," said Marco Durante of the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany.
That is because nuclei are the things that block cosmic rays, and water molecules, made of three small atoms, contain more nuclei per volume than a metal.
"...send Odungo up, we'll be radiation free for a billion years"
Cool, a $hit shield.
Probiotics may be in order.
p.s.
So when TSHTF, they’re protected.
We will see somebody doing this soon on “Extreme Preppers.”
I think.............Forget it I was never on this thread!
They’ll send a putty knife instead of toilet paper.
In before the atomic pile jokes.
Couldn’t they just get it from Uranus?
Gives “good to go” a whole new meaning.
The Space Shittle.
You’re one up on me CC, I’m crapped out.
This is such a contradictory article!
‘The project will develop a radiation shield for the spacecraft by lining its walls with human waste, among other materials.’
‘”Dehydrate them as much as possible, because we need to get the water back,” he said.’
‘Water has long been suggested as a shielding material for interplanetary space missions.’
‘”Water is better than metals for protection,” said Marco Durante of the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany.’
Water is better than metals for shielding.
How can human waste, sans water, be better than metal or water?
Ground control to major John.
Send Rachel Maddow and Chris Mathews, they are so full of feces they could shield a space station the size of the Colliseum.
Uhm...so the food would absorb the radiation. Then the astronauts would eat the food? On the bright side of this commentary, at least we know they wouldn’t eat the crap, the socialists are too busy feeding it to us Americans.
Astronaut 1: This meatloaf tastes like s$%#.
Astronaut 2: How many times do I have to tell you, food on the right side.
Astronaut 1: Is that my right or your right?
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