Some of the hazards that crew members can encounter are the same as those that people encounter everywhere else, but they are increased in space. These can be accidents and injuries that have more danger because treatment equipment is insufficient and evacuation is incapable of being done. Other risks are more relating to outer space. These can be the biomedical risks connected with acceleration of gravity, weightlessness, or microgravity, and emission of radiant energy. Radiation On Mars, astronauts are attacked by potentially considerable doses of naturally occurring radiation.
Some of this radiation comes from the Sun that leads some nuclear power advocates to make a quip “a day without radiation is like a day without sunshine. ” Though this radiation streaks toward Earth, too, it relatively little actually reaches people on ground. People are to some extent protected by the magnetosphere that stretches some 65,000 kilometers and takes radiation. Second, when the Sun burns with an unsteady and sudden bright flame, there are solar particle events, another source of considerable doses of naturally occurring radiation.
In addition, there is radiation from the nuclear fuel and other substances that people bring with them into space. Radioactive sources can be unsuitably stored or handled inefficiently, and pose a risk to human health. Cosmic rays, solar particle events, and artificially created radiation are not the same, nor do they have alike effects on the body of human being. Suffice it to say that medical care system is justifiably concerned about their complex effects on astronauts. Yet, it is very difficult to make precise forecasts.
Environmental control has to rely on mathematical models, simulations, animal studies, and clinical studies of patients who were victims of rare industrial accidents or affected by atomic explosions. Environmental control can protect crew members from severe radiation by bringing them back from Earth orbit if it is considered that the cumulative dose is getting too high. Environmental control can limit exposure by not letting crew members stay there for more than a determinate period of time.
Because of concerns over the cumulative effects of radiation, there should be safe places; that is, heavily shielded places or “storm cellars” where astronauts can retreat in the case of large solar flares or when passing through radiation trapped and increased within the Van Allen belts. Given that environmental control can detect solar storms only a few hours beforehand, people can not be retrieved from space before the storms begin, but environmental control can give them a relatively safe place to shelter.
The difficulty is that the heavier the shielding the greater the protection, but more expensive is the procedure of getting it into orbit. After reaching planetary surfaces crew members will find additional protection. It should be noted that in outer space, all kinds of radiation come from all directions. Anything that separates an astronaut and the heavens reduces exposure, so if one were to lie on his back on the Moon, the radiation that would otherwise enter through his back would be shielded by the mass of the Moon.
A place that is situated next to a cliff would be protected on the cliff side as well as underneath, and a habitat that is nestled under a ledge would have some upper protection as well (Barratt 300). Mars’s thin atmosphere provides at least some protection from radiation. In space exploration, it will be possible to cover habitats with dusty, rocky soil (the layer of loose material covering the bedrock of the earth) and reduce risk from radiation in much the way that people might reduce risks in underground nuclear fallout shelters.
Besides “hardening” habitats environmental control can “harden” the crew members by using techniques designed to keep soldiers as fit as possible in the course of a nuclear engagement (Stine 57). Preventative measures should include a healthy food with a lot of green vegetables, in combination with massive additional doses of vitamins A and E. At the time of radiation attack, risk can be reduced further with atropine injected into the body.
In combination, these two measures can alleviate the effects of radiation by about 40 percent. In addition, there are various types of postexposure therapies that free the body of toxins and help improve the immune system of crew members. Life Support Systems According to Penelope Boston, there are four basic requirements for life support systems (Boston 327). First, life support systems must be fitting for the mission and the purposes. On early missions it was sufficient to merely bring drinking water along.
For the Mars mission, however, it will be basic requirement to pass water through a system again for further use and find or produce water at the planetary base. Second, life support systems must be very predictable and dependable. A broken air conditioner on Earth is without difficulty fixed, but a broken cooling system on Mars can lead to evacuation of the crew members. Third, life support systems must not be difficult in use and require little work or even attention from the crew members.
Crew members should be kept from routine maintenance of the system so that they can devote their time and energy to scientific exploration. In addition, while life support systems can be discussed separately, they should work together as integrated, coordinated mechanism. For example, the supply of water that can be taken or produced onboard has impacts on waste management. Attempts to grow crops could change the gasiform structure of the habitat’s atmosphere.