I for one did not realize she was so important to the survival of mankind ~ I do know that MacBeth would be devastated if she were hit.
We do have the materials. You could build a spaceship with a concrete and lead shell a few feet thick and stop those cosmic rays but that would be one heck of an engineering problem trying to figure out how to get enough thrust to generate the escape velocity to get it out of the Earth's gravity well.
Excellent point. It would be pretty easy for the Soviets to call our bluff by having one of their lunar probes flyover the Apollo landing site to see if the base of the lunar lander module was still there. For that matter if the lunar landing was all a hoax why didn't the Soviets do one themselves? In their controlled society it would be easier to convince their populace of it and there are parts of central Asia that look like the Moon already.
You could build it on the space station, sending smaller modules up to be assemmbled in space. Not really a problem of engineering, more of funding.
From the most recent issue of Discover Magazine (be kind, I OCR'd and only examined it for errors briefly): [rquoter] When astronaut Buzz Aldrin shut his eyes during Apollo 1l’s return from the moon in July 1969, he noticed something unusual: fireworks. Explosions of light, apparently on the insides of his eyelids. Back on Earth, he told flight surgeons what he had seen. And he learned that the pyrotechnics were not a cause to celebrate. Each was what scientists call a retinal flash—a physiological marker that occurs when a galactic cosmic ray slashes through a person’s brain. Galactic cosmic rays come from supernovas—exploding stars—outside our galaxy, and they often travel very fast, close to the speed of light. They can be any element (up to the atomic weight of iron), but because they have lost or gained electrons, they are said to be ionized, meaning that they carry a negative or positive charge. Elements with the greatest atomic weight are the most dangerous to astronauts. You might expect lead—that familiar prophylactic against dental X-rays—to provide shielding. But when a heavy ion collides with an atom of lead, it dislodges charged particles that can be just as destructive as the original heavy ion. Imagine a cosmic ray as “a bullet flying around with speed and mass,” says Marcelo Vazquez, a researcher at the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island in New York who studies the effect of radiation on brain cells and tissue. When the rays “go through matter—it can be a rock, a body, or your brain—they have so much energy and charge that they produce a kind of hole. But they also produce secondary particles, like a shower.” Hydrogen compounds offer the best shielding against secondary particles, because hydrogen atoms contain one electron for one proton. The ideal Mars-bound ship would have an aluminum or carbon- composite exterior, with two to four inches of polyethylene around the crew compartment. Water is another efficient shield; on the International Space Station, some astronauts sleep surrounded by their water bags. But nothing—not even an artificial electromagnetic field around the spacecraft—will block the rays entirely. This matters because cosmic rays kill brain cells—or, in any event, brain cells in vitro. Vazquez’s laboratory experiments have shown that cosmic rays induce what is called programmed cell death in neurons. “The cells have a kind of sensor that detects damage to DNA and other cellular material,” he says. ‘And they say, ‘Oh, I have so much damage that I can’t live anymore.’ So they kill themselves.” Moreover, as a heavy ion passes through a column of cells, it forms a “track”—a line of destruction that can easily be seen in microscopic images. Dislodged particles called delta rays career out from this track, inflicting yet more damage on adjacent tissue. (On a cellular level, the delta-ray pattern of damage is more like that of X-rays or gamma rays.) During Apollo, astronauts had only a brief exposure to cosmic rays. Likewise, on Mir and the International Space Station, they have largely been shielded by Earth’s magnetic field (except in a small, quirky patch of orbit above Brazil known as the South Atlantic Anomaly). But if Bush’s plans for establishing a base station on the moon are realized, astronauts would face six months of chronic exposure. And on the two-and- a-half-year mission proposed for Mars, they would be struck both in transit and on the planet, where, Vazquez says, the problem is compounded because cosmic rays interact with the surface to produce secondary radiation. Unlike Earth, Mars does not have a magnetic field. Just what exactly is the long-term effect of cosmic rays? “We don’t know,” says Cucinotta. Vazquez, however, raises a gloomy possibility. “Depending on the size of the cell, we estimate that between 13 percent and 40 percent of brain cells will be hit once by cosmic rays,” Vazquez explains. “We have millions and millions of cells in the brain. But 40 percent is a lot. Some areas of the brain are very tiny,” he adds. “But they play an important role in functioning. If you wipe out those cells, you don’t need to worry about the hundreds of billions of cells. A few million—you’re gone.” (Alzheimer’s patients, for example, often lose about 5 percent of their brains per year.) Vazquez is quick to point out that the results of his in vitro research may not ultimately reflect what happens to cells in vivo, nor will the results of animal experiments provide the final word on people. “To go from petri dishes to humans is abig jump,” he says. But the transition from brain-cell cultures to the brains of intact animals does not seem to bode well for astronaut resilience. In addition to imaging heavy-ion tracks, Vazquez has studied the effect of chronic cosmic-ray exposure on the brains of rats, as measured by their ability to move around in a box. Groups of laboratory rats exposed to heavy ions—as well as groups bombarded with conventional radiation— show an impairment of motor skills. Over a period of 11 months, the rats exposed to X-rays and gamma rays regain some of their lost coordination. Rats exposed to cosmic rays, however, appear to never fully recover. [/rquoter] There is also a whole lot more about how cosmic rays essentially destroy all pharmacuticals, etc. etc. and all the myriad other problems that are currently unsolvable.
We did land gracefully on Mars with the Vicking landers. However, they were very big and VERY expensive. The landers on Mars had to be cheap in order to even get built so the balloons were an clever idea to save lots of weight in propellent therefore saving tons of money. It's not that we don't have the technology; it's that they don't have the budget. Besides, I understand that getting to Mars is VERY difficult. That's why so many missions have failed. So many things that to go so right in order for the missions to be successful (not to mention avoiding human error - metric vs. English anyone?).
So much for concrete and lead. I was thinking about the type of shielding around a nuclear reactor but if that doesn't stop cosmic rays then we got some serious problems getting to Mars.
I'm just shocked looking at the poll that almost one in ten people think there's some big American conspiracy to trick people into thinking we got to the moon. Why is that hard to believe? What motivation would we have to lie about something like that? There are so many other good things to lie about. Has anyone in this thread openly talked about their No vote? I'm really curious about their view. My room mate is just a moron, and doesn't have many opinions on anything. Doesn't mean others dont have educated ones.
When the Europeans were exploring the seas, they wanted to trade goods and resources. Most of Spain's subsequent explorations after Columbus was for riches. I think leisure space cruises and anxious colonists are in the small minority for now, so the stereotypical adventurist oil exploring Texan would probably get the ball rolling faster. They like risk taking to the point of being voluntary guinea pigs for new technology. And science as a motivation? Feh. We have that billion dollar smaller than expected space cabin doing the cool science stuff.... So far, we haven't even had a trained scientist go to the moon.
Mott the Hoople and the Game of Life. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Andy Kaufman in the wrestling match. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Monopoly, twenty one, checkers, and chess. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Mister Fred Blassie in a breakfast mess. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Let's play Twister, let's play Risk. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah See you in heaven if you make the list. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Hey Andy, did you hear about this one? Tell me, are you locked in the punch? Hey Andy, are you goofing on Elvis? Hey baby, are we losing touch? If you believed they put a man on the moon, man on the moon If you believe there's nothing up my sleeve, then nothing is cool Moses went walking with the staff of wood. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Newton got beaned by the apple good. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Egypt was troubled by the horrible asp. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Mister Charles Darwin had the gall to ask. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Hey Andy, did you hear about this one? Tell me, are you locked in the punch? Hey Andy, are you goofing on Elvis? Hey baby, are you having fun? If you believed they put a man on the moon, man on the moon If you believe there's nothing up my sleeve, then nothing is cool Here's a little agit for the never-believer. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Here's a little ghost for the offering. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Here's a truck stop instead of Saint Peter's. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Mister Andy Kaufman's gone wrestling (wrestling bears). Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Hey Andy, did you hear about this one? Tell me, are you locked in the punch? Hey Andy, are you goofing on Elvis? Hey baby, are we losing touch? If you believed they put a man on the moon, man on the moon If you believe there's nothing up my sleeve, then nothing is cool If you believed they put a man on the moon, man on the moon If you believe there's nothing up my sleeve, then nothing is cool If you believed they put a man on the moon, man on the moon If you believe there's nothing up my sleeve, then nothing is cool If you believed they put a man on the moon, man on the moon If you believe there's nothing up my sleeve, then nothing is cool
just in case you conspiracy theorists want more ammo for the "fake" moon landing, there's an actual National Geographic special on the very subject right now about this.
