Despite all the heady talk about sending men into space in the not too distant future, many a practical problem remains far from solution. One of the most formidable : protecting space travelers from the deadly radiation that will swarm about them.
This week General Electric Engineer Norris F. Dow, reporting his findings in Aero/Space Engineering, considered the difficulties of providing radiation shielding for spacemen—and found them immense.
When an inhabited satellite orbits 2,200 miles above the earth, its crew will be riddled by the fast-moving protons of the inner Van Allen radiation belt. If unshielded, the spacemen will be inflicted with about...
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