Short periods of time is correct. With only traces of a magnetosphere, Mars is a very hazardous place for humans to be for long. Without some significant shielding available to humans, to stay long on the surface would be like playing Russian roulette. One good belch of solar wind aimed at Mars and, well, it would not be pretty. Now, if we could bring in a large asteroid into orbit around Mars, that would cause sufficient tidal forces to re-melt the iron core and perhaps get the magnetosphere going again. But watch out for the volcanoes as they would start up again. I'm just sayin'... :) Mat -----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of erikhansen@thebluezone.net Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2012 11:32 AM To: Utah Astronomy Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] The Curiosity Kerfuffle
The news interviewed one of the scientists, they mentioned finding trace amounts of carbon. Seems they are still in the debris field, so it might have been carbon from Curiosity. I did hear they are measuring radioactivity on the surface and it is within human tolerances for short periods, but long enough for a manned mission to Mars.
Here (form the Planetary Society) is a good explanation of what caused all
the stir about Curiosity recently.
patrick
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2012/12031316-curiosity-kerf... _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy
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