You may be able to move to Mars

[Janx]

I am not privy to Mars One's solution. One usual expected answer is to build your water tanks around the living areas of the craft.

Yeah, I thought it was common knowledge that they were planning on packing the food and water and poop on the outside of the living area to act as shielding. When the Mars One story first hit, there were additional articles and sections that discussed the poop angle, because normal people would think that an odd material to use.

I guess we don't all read the science section of Google News.

 

[Bullgrit]

One usual expected answer is to build your water tanks around the living areas of the craft.

That wouldn't irradiate the drinking water? That wouldn't be bad?

Bullgrit

 

[jonesy]

That wouldn't irradiate the drinking water? That wouldn't be bad?

"Guys! Steve is drinking the radiation shield again!"

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

"Shut up! You're not the boss of me!"

 

[Umbran]

That wouldn't irradiate the drinking water? That wouldn't be bad?

No, not particularly.

Radiation hurts you primarily through ionization - a high-energy particle comes tearing through, and rips bits off the molecules in your body. If it does so to DNA, the cell may malfunction. If it does it to other molecules in the cell, they may then go on to damage DNA. It is the genetic damage that give you radiation sickness or cancer.

You ionize water and, for a moment, you've got a hydrogen wandering away from an oxygen. But, soon enough they get back together, and there's no big deal.

 

[Umbran]

"Guys! Steve is drinking the radiation shield again!"

That's okay - when he goes to the bathroom, we'll just recycle it back into the shield. No problem

(Hint: if you don't like the idea of recycling waste water for drinking, don't go on long-term space missions.)

 

[jonesy]

You ionize water and, for a moment, you've got a hydrogen wandering away from an oxygen. But, soon enough they get back together, and there's no big deal.

Sounds like the next Disney love story.

 

[El Mahdi]

deleted

 

[Umbran]

Isn't this also why high-pressure hydrogen has been looked at as a possible material for spacecraft shielding? Minimal to zero secondary radiation?

I wouldn't think so. Though, I wouldn't think high-pressure hydrogen would be a good way to go. Hydrogen is good as shielding, but the problem with high-pressure hydrogen gas is that it really, really wants to become low-pressure hydrogen gas, and that's problematic. You use water because it is a pretty good way to get high densities of hydrogen without having to use high pressure.

I remember reading somewhere (though I can't seem to find it again), that research into hydrogenating carbon nanotubes with high-pressure hydrogen

Oh, that's something else. That is *not* using high-pressure hydrogen as shielding. That's using high-pressure to get hydrogen to chemically bond with carbon nanotubes. You can then let off the pressure, and you don't get the hydrogen back unless you heat the nanotubes (to about 600 degrees Celsius). I've heard about his not as a method of creating shielding, but as a method of storing the stuff - for making a fuel tank, for example.

 

[El Mahdi]

deleted