Golden Shields Revisited

With asteroid utilization for the purpose of attaining water and low-density shielding material, we would want to select one high in Hydrogen content based on that asteroid's spectroscopic data.

If you have enough of the low density, it doesn't matter what you encase it in.. doesn't matter what the hull is made of and if it's made of Gold, it doesn't matter. And we MIGHT be able to scrape away an eighth of an inch of low density if so - I don't know.

I imagine they'll be experiments in space using different materials and methodologies to come up with the best shielding concoction.

And it also has to do with duration - how long the person is inside the shielding - becuase the longer it is the more exposure you get.

So, Gold in space suits = 6 hours. Two meters of high-Hydrogen astercrete over 100 years = I DON'T KNOW.

So, we'll learn as we go along, trying different things, monitoring workers' exposure, etc.

George
cygo.com

I've been thinking about those primaries and those secondaries, which
may not be a good thing, as I don't have the background to think about
them in a truly knowledgeable way. But think of them I have, and what
I've come up with is this:

Now, just to illustrate the idea (don't try this at home, kids), let's
say that you are standing three metres in front of me with a
1958-B-movie-looking ray gun which shoots a lethal dose of primaries
right at me. I'm not worried about it, though, because two metres in
front of me is a centimetre-thick golden shield which stops your
primaries cold. So now I'm laughing at you. "Ha ha! Nah nah! You
can't get me!!"

Perhaps I should be a bit less snotty, though. First of all, it just
isn't nice. Also, while I stand laughing and sticking my tongue out
at you (which you can't see anyway because, after all, there's a
golden shield in the way), the interaction of your primaries with that
shield has generated a butt-load of secondaries, which are streaming
towards me.

The reason I'm not worried about it is because, while you are THREE
metres in front of me and the
primaries-stopping-but-secondaries-generating shield is TWO metres in
front of me, there is ANOTHER golden shield ONE metre in front of me,
which stops the secondary particles. So I quite happily continue
laughing, making faces, and saying such wonderfully mature things as
"Nanny-nanny-boo-boo!"

Until you calmly step around the shields and zap me, that is. Serves
me right.