/sci/ - Science & Math

[Anonymous No.2889285]

What materials can be used on space craft to guard against radiation from stars and other spatial entities?

Would lead lining work?

[Anonymous No.2889298]

nothing I can think of can protect you from even the highest energy gamma rays, even a foot of lead.
good luck getting that much mass off the ground.

[Anonymous No.2889307]

>>2889298
>>2889285
so only the protection of a massive gravitational field then huh?

[Anonymous No.2889315]

>>2889307
isnt it the atmosphere that protects us?
not gravity, not directly

[Anonymous No.2889327]

>>2889315
I have no idea, I always thought it was our magnetic field that bounces radiation off our surface.

Heat is bounced off the atmosphere I think.

[Anonymous No.2889350]

Thread is now an aurora thread

[Lord Fap !h3WDZNERS6 No.2889399]

alpha radiation (helium cores) can be blocked easily with a small shield of matter (your clothing suffices).

beta radiation (electrons) will emit x-rays when it hits something solid, so you will need a dense shield. A cm of lead wall will suffice.

Gamma radiation will punch through everything. You will need a really thick lead wall and even then some will get through.

Neutron radiation needs a shield with several layers: first layer reduces the energy of the neutrons. For example a water barrier.
Second layer catches the neutrons, for example Bor. This releases some secondary radiation, which has to be blocked by the third layer. For example a wall of lead.

[Lord Fap !h3WDZNERS6 No.2889429]

The solar wind is mostly alpha and beta radiation. The earth's magnetosphere as well as the atmosphere protect us agains this.
You may notice that gamma radiation gets through. Hence the occasional sunburn of skin.

[Lord Fap !h3WDZNERS6 No.2889466]

The solar wind is mostly alpha and beta radiation. The earth's magnetosphere as well as the atmosphere protect us agains this.
Some hard radiation still gets through (UV), which causes the occasional sunburn.

[Lord Fap !h3WDZNERS6 No.2889509]

Cosmic gamma radiation peaks according to wiki at up to 10^12 eV.
That would require a really thick lead wall and even then some would get through.

[Anonymous No.2889536]

>>2889399
This

IRL they use a lot of gold and iridium since it's much more dense than lead so you don't need as thick of a layer.
Some other good radiation blockers. One of the reasons why spacecraft cost so damn much, you're working with expensive crazy materials.

platinum
rhenium
neptunium
plutonium
tungsten

[Anonymous No.2889542]

>>2889285
Water and stuff that contains hydrogen is best.

Lead will actually make things worse:
http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/radiation.php#Radiation_Shielding~Hull_Armor

Much radiation in space consists of charged particles(like protons) zipping through space. When these charged particles hit lead they happen to produce nasty braking radiation or bremsstrahlung.

FUN FACT: space radiation(high energy protons) has been know to transmute elements in astronauts into different elements!

[Anonymous No.2889549]

>>2889399

So what your saying is make cube like ships made of lead dipped in water. Personally, I approve you can never have enough lead.

[Deerp Thought !3PmlUNUKEM No.2889550]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-value_layer

[Anonymous No.2889558]

>>2889542
>>2889542
olol spacemans are nuclear fissions

[Anonymous No.2889584]

>>2889536
NOPE, completely wrong, none of those materials are used for radiation protection.

The gold in spacecraft goes into thermal blankets and electronics silly! Said golden thermal blankets don't really cost that much either because they contain such miniscule amounts of gold. In fact you can pick up golden thermal blankets at your local camping store for not much more than $5.

Said thermal blankets do protect against radiation though, as in the infrared-visible type.

Plutonium- some spacecraft do indeed have plutonium in them, not for radiation protection, but for keeping things warm or for a thermal power source.

[Lord Fap !h3WDZNERS6 No.2889602]

>>2889549
No idea. Maybe a two layered shield. Outside made of something containing hydrogen (water, paraffin) and second layer something really dense (lead, gold, uranium, tungsten) and really thick(shit bricks).

Or you develop a sci fi shield that emulates the earth's magnotsphere.

[Lord Fap !h3WDZNERS6 No.2889629]

Then again maybe a three layered shield with Bor in the middle isn't that bad either. Maybe neutron radiation can be produced when the ship is hit by cosmic radiation.

[Anonymous No.2889725]

giant slabs of moon rock

sheesh lrn2engineer