Professor Lewis Dartnell, Professor of Science Communication, was quoted in an article by Bloomberg about Elon Musk’s ambition to send people to Mars as early as 2026.
The article discussed how a long flight would expose humans to one of space travel’s biggest terrors, called solar flares, which are the most powerful type of explosion in the solar system. Professor Lewis Dartnell said: “It’s a very gruesome way to die.”
He discussed how properly positioning water tanks onboard the spacecraft could act as shields, so in the event of a flare, travellers could retreat to the spacecraft’s version of a panic room surrounded by water tanks. The problem is detecting activity on the Sun, especially on the side not facing the Earth. He said: “How can we make our space weather prediction good enough that we can give the crew notice? We don’t have established capacity to observe the Sun from different angles for tracking solar storms.”
Read the full article on Bloomberg’s website.
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