Comments by "David Elliott" (@davidelliott5843) on "How Dangerous is Deep Space Travel to Mars and Beyond ?" video.

  1. We got a few goodies from the Apollo project but are non stick cookware and write on the ceiling ballpoint pens really worth the cost? Another big issue is power. Solar panels on Mars give 50% of the useful energy they do on earth. Further degraded by the horribly abrasive dust. Kirk Sorensen was tasked developing nuclear power to do the job but his project was shut down and molten salt reactors (an American invention) are being ignored. Plutonium powered thermocouple reactors as used in space probes are too low power and too hazardous. PWR reactors are too heavy. That leaves molten salt.
    2
  2. The people of Ramsar in Iran live with background radiation 20 times higher than the max allowable occupational exposure to ionising radiation. They show no ill effects and might have fewer cancers. The suggestion is that (just like UV, ionising radiation low doses is beneficial. The snag is that we assume any dose of radiation is harmful. Accordingly, no real research has been done to prove the actual shape of the IR exposure graph. If people are to visit Mars we really need to do that radiation research.
    2
  3. The natural background radiation at Ramsar in Iran delivers about 10x the max allowable occupational dose. Yet the people have less cancer than would be expected. NASA should be studying here as there are no ethical issues.
    1