Not that I WANT to terraform Mars...

The Earth normal assumption is what the 10 m thick shield was designed
for. In fact the design requirement was half the radiation level in
Denver Colorado. I'm not sure why by the way. I also don't remeber it
being 10 m. Are you sure it was 10 m and not 10ft? The study I
normally quote is the AMES study that brought out the Standford Torus
as the design.

As for what is the maximum amount radiation that can be acceptable is,
I don't know. I would go with the radiation levels allowed by the
nuclear industry as a guideline myself, but are they to high or to low
is anyones guess.

Bill

--- In spacesettlers@y..., "Dr. Omni" wrote:
> I'm still unconvinced that a magnetic field is indispensable. Even
if
> without the magnetic field the radiation level is ten times higher,
as far
> as I know the radiation level at Earth's surface is so low that a
level 10
> times higher would not be dangerous yet. Perhaps it would be less
than that
> experienced by someone who works with radioisotopes.
>
> Eventually, I'll check this information at my "The Higher Frontier",
but
> right now I'm too sleepy to do that ;-). By the way, if your
reasoning is
> correct, it would also imply that space settlements would have to
have a
> passive shield 100 meters thick, instead of just 10 meters thick.
>
> Lucio Coelho
>
> From: "Bill"
> To:
> Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2001 12:41 AM
> Subject: [spacesettlers] Re: Not that I WANT to terraform Mars...
>
> For everyone who is not yet convinced the magnetic field is
necessary
> go to google or your favourite search engine and type von allen
belt.
>
> The von allen belts is the belts of cosmic rays that get trapped
above
> the atmosphere by the earth's magentic field and is disappiated at
> the north and south pole.
>
> The erath's magnetic field traps over 90% of the cosmic rays. With
out