I suppose it is a silly question but how long can water be exposed to radiation before no longer being drinkable?<p>(that is the shielding <i>before</i> it is turned into the other kind of shielding)
That headline title.<p>But then again, why is this needed? Won't they be getting plenty of radiation soon as they're outside the o-zone layer? Does our normal method of radiation shielding decay over time, or something?<p>(Total layman here, curious)
Another silly question,
we don't use magnetic fields for deflecting radiation because we can build only weak magnets?<p>(just idea, electricity comes from solar panels/"nuke plants" and is probably only non ending resource in space.)<p>A burst from capacitors for powerful electromagnet, could be future?<p>edit: found answer from comments:
<a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5315143" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5315143</a>
So why can't they have manually powered televisions to pick up TV and watch something on the craft? Since Earth has been broadcasting for so long, shouldn't there be TV broadcasts at the range of Mars that they could pick up and watch? If it's powered by some sort of exercise machine, it'd also assist with the muscle atrophy, no?
Brings new meaning to "I'll be on the poop deck"? (come on, it couldn't be resisted)<p>More seriously, it's an interesting idea and it solves a couple issues... storage, overall travel weight, and shielding. Interesting.
Water and nutrients from the poop may need to be recycled, certainly for deep space missions. Using it as a rad-shield would help to keep it sterile while in storage.