One of the main problems of traveling to Mars is solar radiation, from which astronauts are completely unprotected. Researchers from Kyiv National University suggested that an asteroid could be used to protect them.
Radiation on the way to Mars
With present jet technology, a trip from Earth to Mars would take several months. And all this time, the astronauts will be exposed to radiation from our Sun, which is normally trapped by the Earth’s magnetic field and ozone layer.
An artificial shield could keep people safe from it during flight. But it weighs so much and is so large that launching it into space would be a serious problem. However, Victor Reshetnyk from Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv and his student suggest a way to get by without it.
In their paper, recently published on the arXiv preprint server, they argue that all they need to do is find a suitable asteroid and fly between planets, shielded by it from the Sun. To find one is actually not difficult, because now there are known about 35,000 such bodies that are approaching the Earth.
Space routes
In total, the researchers have found 525 asteroids, whose orbits run in such a way that, sheltered by them, it is possible to carry out an interplanetary flight in less than 180 days. Then they narrowed that list down even more to a reasonable speed while approaching the planet to begin with — essentially to make sure a crewed spacecraft could catch up to the asteroid without burning an absurd amount of fuel.
As a result, they had a list of 120 routes that could be practiced: 44 – Earth to Venus, 17 – Earth to Mars, 13 – Mars to Earth, 2 – Mars to Venus, 38 – Venus to Earth, and 6 – Venus to Mars. However, most of these bodies are quite small, no more than 370 meters in diameter. However, for those spacecraft that humans are going to build in the near future, this is completely sufficient.
In addition, several even more unique asteroids have been found. 11 of them allow you to travel not only from Earth to Venus but also back, 1 allows you to do the same between Venus and Mars. Another two could do double flights: one from Earth to Venus and Mars, and one from Mars to Venus or Earth.
But there was none that could move freely between all three planets. This doesn’t mean that such an object doesn’t exist at all. We don’t know all near-Earth asteroids yet, and we may well find one in the future.
Provided by phys.org
