NASA is currently planning a human flight to Mars, which will require approximately a forty-million-mile journey, which is over 150 times longer than the distance between the Earth and Moon. This journey will involve prolonged transit outside of the Earth's magnetosphere, where intense radiation levels threaten the crew's performance, health, and survival. Advanced forms of nuclear rocketry are under development now to transit this distance as rapidly as feasible, and thereby minimize the total radiation dose to the crew.
The protection of the crew's health and performance requires a fully interdisciplinary scientific and engineering approach. New biomedical developments may make the crews less susceptible to space radiation, and other environmental threats. Advanced crew monitoring and shielding may provide additional protection strategies and counter-measures. Current nuclear thermal rockets can minimize this Earth - Mars transit time to roughly one month in each direction, and future fission-fragment nuclear rocket propulsion may reduce this time to less than one week, but this will require new accomplishments in advanced materials and nuclear technology. It is essential that these missions be conducted during periods of minimal particle radiation from the Sun. Space weather and solar flare activity may be currently forecast out to 45 days from the present. We seek to explore and identify biotechnology that protects human health, new shielding, monitoring, and counter-measure technologies, new methods that refine and extend space weather forecasting, and especially new propulsion technologies that greatly reduce the transit time to Mars and beyond.
We seek original research articles for inclusion in a comprehensive, interdisciplinary volume that is dedicated to preserving crew health on long missions to be conducted outside of the Earth's magnetosphere, such as from the Earth to Mars. This may include articles on:
* Crew health, performance, and other environmental concerns on long-duration missions;
* New biomedical and health-monitoring-based protection technologies and strategies;
* Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning systems to adapt to long-duration space environments;
* Passive and active shielding from the space radiation environment;
* Predictions and forecasting of the space radiation environment, especially along the route of travel;
* New orbital trajectories and other strategies to minimize transit time;
* Current and planned future propulsion technologies to minimize transit time;
* Novel approaches to protecting crew health and performance in long-duration space flight.
NASA is currently planning a human flight to Mars, which will require approximately a forty-million-mile journey, which is over 150 times longer than the distance between the Earth and Moon. This journey will involve prolonged transit outside of the Earth's magnetosphere, where intense radiation levels threaten the crew's performance, health, and survival. Advanced forms of nuclear rocketry are under development now to transit this distance as rapidly as feasible, and thereby minimize the total radiation dose to the crew.
The protection of the crew's health and performance requires a fully interdisciplinary scientific and engineering approach. New biomedical developments may make the crews less susceptible to space radiation, and other environmental threats. Advanced crew monitoring and shielding may provide additional protection strategies and counter-measures. Current nuclear thermal rockets can minimize this Earth - Mars transit time to roughly one month in each direction, and future fission-fragment nuclear rocket propulsion may reduce this time to less than one week, but this will require new accomplishments in advanced materials and nuclear technology. It is essential that these missions be conducted during periods of minimal particle radiation from the Sun. Space weather and solar flare activity may be currently forecast out to 45 days from the present. We seek to explore and identify biotechnology that protects human health, new shielding, monitoring, and counter-measure technologies, new methods that refine and extend space weather forecasting, and especially new propulsion technologies that greatly reduce the transit time to Mars and beyond.
We seek original research articles for inclusion in a comprehensive, interdisciplinary volume that is dedicated to preserving crew health on long missions to be conducted outside of the Earth's magnetosphere, such as from the Earth to Mars. This may include articles on:
* Crew health, performance, and other environmental concerns on long-duration missions;
* New biomedical and health-monitoring-based protection technologies and strategies;
* Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning systems to adapt to long-duration space environments;
* Passive and active shielding from the space radiation environment;
* Predictions and forecasting of the space radiation environment, especially along the route of travel;
* New orbital trajectories and other strategies to minimize transit time;
* Current and planned future propulsion technologies to minimize transit time;
* Novel approaches to protecting crew health and performance in long-duration space flight.