New paper: Orbital Space Settlement Radiation Shielding

"Orbital Space Settlement Radiation Shielding," Al Globus and Joe Strout, preprint, September 2014. The major result of this paper is that settlements in low (500-600 km) Earth equatorial orbits may not require any radiation shielding at all based on a careful analysis of requirements and extensive simulation of radiation effects. This has profound implications for space settlement as extraterrestrial mining and manufacturing are no longer on the critical path to the first settlements, although they will be essential in later stages. It also means the first settlements can evolve from space stations, hotels, and retirement communities in relatively small steps.

Full text: http://space.alglobus.net/papers/RadiationPaper2014.pdf

For (almost) all of my space settlement related writing, see http://space.alglobus.net/
Full text:
http://space.alglobus.net/papers/RadiationPaper2014.pdf
For (almost) all of my space settlement related writing, see
http://space.alglobus.net/