Astronaut Brain Damage From Mars Trip Radiation

Some researchers think a 1000 day Mars trip would damage the brains of astronauts. First off, going to Mars and back is going to have about as much impact as going to the Moon and back: Great TV video streams and then forget about it. Anything short of a major colonization effort is not worth it. A major colonization effort won't be worth trying until we have sufficient tech (notably biotech) to enable the colonists to produce the very wide array of drugs, foods, and equipment needed to maintain a complex technological civilization. However, we can make a human Mars expedition safer for the astronauts and also a much more useful step toward eventual colonization by building an underground shelter...
Source: FuturePundit - Category: Research Authors: Source Type: blogs