Radiation on mars one trip

[gbaikie]

Polypropylene and Polyethylene materials can be used to make lightweight radiation shielding that is effective even against cosmic radiation. Also a radiation shielded habitat for the colonists could be launched and land on Mars prior to their arrival. TransHab has a very good design for a lightweight inflatable space habitat. Throw some Martian soil over it keep it from blowing away and provide additional radiation protection and I think your astronauts would be alright as long as they don't stay out on the surface to long. Mars has a magnetic field and atmosphere albeit tenuous and is further away from the Sun so I think solar flares won't be a problem once there, cosmic radiation is even a problem here on Earth so you will probably want to send radiation detectors.

Solar flares do not follow Earth to Mars hohmann trajectories and can have high velocities.

"Coronal mass ejections reach velocities between 20km/s to 3200km/s with an average speed of 489km/s, based on SOHO/LASCO measurements between 1996 and 2003."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronal_mass_ejection

So average distance from sun of Earth 149.6 million km and Mars is 227.9, so difference of 78.3 million km.
At 489 km/sec it's a difference of 160122. 6 seconds.  44.4 Hours. Or 1.8 days.
It seems that slower [and likely weaker] solar flares could have bigger difference at Mars distance as compared to Earth distance but faster [and more deadly] coronal mass ejections are only going to be reduced by a small amount at Mars distance.
The added distance to Mars, does make Mars a smaller target.
Earth's orbital circumference is 939.5 million km. And Mars is 1431 million km. So, roughly, if there is 1 in 9 chance to hit Earth, it's 1 in 14 at Mars

Re Mars magnetic field:
"The dynamo theory of planetary magnetism indicates that Mars may have had a dipole moment of about one-tenth of Earth's when it was first formed (Schubert and Spohn, 1990)."
http://www-ssc.igpp.ucla.edu/personnel/russell/papers/mars_mag/

"Instead, scientists now think Mars lost its global magnetic field, which would have surrounded the entire planet the way Earth's does today, billions of years ago, allowing the water to disappear in another direction entirely. Without the protection of the magnetic field, much of the atmosphere dissipated into the vacuum of space. All that's left are patches of magnetic field, which create pockets of atmosphere."
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/space/moon-mars/what-happened-to-mars-atmosphere-15277534
Read more: What Happened to Mars' Atmosphere? - Popular Mechanics
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Visit us at PopularMechanics.com

So Mars and Moon have similar magnetic fields but Mars atmosphere- particularly it's ionosphere adds some additional protection.

[JulesVerneATV]

maybe worth a bump with Northern Lights , pretty pictures tending on social media of the Aurora amid the largest geomagnetic storm i


ISS astronauts take cover from radiation as solar storms spark auroras across the planet
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/international-space-station/iss-astronauts-take-cover-from-radiation-as-solar-storms-spark-auroras-across-the-planet

AUDIO: Aurora australis lights up sky over southern Australia
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11-13/naus_solarflaresnr_1311/106004148

Effectiveness of Martian regolith as a radiation shield
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0032063322001039

The Mutant Wolves of Chernobyl Have Evolved to Survive Cancer
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/animals/a46799706/mutant-wolves-of-chernobyl/
In the shadow of nuclear disaster, these canines show remarkable resilience to the deadly disease.

These strange, hybrid Earth lifeforms could survive on Mars, new study hints
https://www.yahoo.com/news/strange-hybrid-earth-lifeforms-could-160000793.html