Are Russia getting ready to go to Mars

Russia are doing some experiments to see the effect on humans for a space flight to Mars and back. Are they getting ready to send a crew to the Red planet? Are they going to try and be the first there?www.marsdaily.com... ia_Continues_Flight_Simulation_Experiments_For_Mars_500_999.html

I'd really like to know how they plan on surviving the radiation belts.
I understand that Earth is the only planet in our Solar System that has them. I wonder why that is, don't you?

reply to post by OhZone


What do you mean by "surviving the radiation belts"?

Do you mean while crossing the radiation belts or surviving the space radiation because they do not have the protection from the radiation belts after leaving Earth?

If it's the first case, all astronauts that went to the Moon crossed the radiation belts (I suppose you are talking about the Van Allen belts), and they were not in danger because they were a short time inside them.

The real problem is the second case, a flight to Mars and back would last more than one year, and although there have been people in space longer than that, they were not in outer space, they were inside the radiation belts that protect Earth from the Solar and cosmic radiation.

Edit: Fixed link

[edit on 20/4/2008 by ArMaP]

A nuclear powered ship would be big enough to protect the crew from any space radiation and fast enough that it would cut down their time in the belts to little over a month. See the Orion Project. This is the only currently feasible technology for interstellar travel.

Originally posted by OhZone
I'd really like to know how they plan on surviving the radiation belts.
I understand that Earth is the only planet in our Solar System that has them. I wonder why that is, don't you?

There are other planets with radiation belts around them. Any planet with a strong magnetic field should have radiation belts around them.

And surviving Earth's radiation belts is not a problem. It's the solar and background radiation for long trips that poses a problem.