UK and US lack regulation to protect space tourists from cosmic ray dangers International regulations governing space flight lack rules to protect space tourism passengers from the ill-effects of cosmic radiation, according to researchers. Over the last decade, entrepreneurial billionaires such as Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson have launched commercial space flights targeting tourists that are …
Seems a little harsh, although I'm indifferent to their fate. And so far a few minutes of space tourism seems less risky than other billionaire pursuits like visiting the Titanic, or getting on the wrong side of Putin. And if those don't appeal, they can always try the old staple of billionaire population control, helicopter crashing. Very popular that last one.
Sorry, not really. Cosmic rays can easily penetrate a few cm of lead. And if you get hit by an Oh-My-God particle*, it will hardly notice you.
The document at https://www.pnnl.gov/main/publications/external/technical_reports/PNNL-20693.pdf provides shielding capabilities of different materials from cosmic rays , see page 15 for Lead. "Note that for lead, even after 100 cm the secondary generation shows still more low-energy neutrons."
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oh-My-God_particle "The Oh-My-God particle's energy was estimated as (3.2±0.9)×10**20 eV, "
Anybody that can afford to go into space can afford a tin foil hat. Or to talk to medical professionals with actual experience of people that have been into space.
There don't need to be "regulations" to appease some rich blokes that want to dick around in a different playground.
"significant health implications for crew and passengers"
I'd have thought the idea of sitting atop an enormous controlled (sometimes) explosion might have been a greater concern.
"I'd have thought the idea of sitting atop an enormous controlled (sometimes) explosion might have been a greater concern."
Or one where there is NO interlock on the re-entry system such that it could be deployed in any phase of flight.
One would have hoped that in their code might be if(booster == on) return false;
Or at ABSOLUTE minimum a 2 stage lock on the handle so you've got to be really sure you want to pull it.
A slightly less catastrophic incident of yanking the wrong handle involved an F14 where the back seater accidentally grabbed the ejection handle when the aircraft rolled inverted.
Not everything needs regulating to the last dot and comma. The whole business of regulation consumes both human & capital resources that could usefully be used elsewhere. Caveat Emptor seems a good common-sense response, though I have to say that excessive wealth does seem to destroy that facility in some of them.
Not to mention that currently, apart from well regulated trips to the ISS[*], the radiation exposure for "space tourists" is probably less than a few high altitude passenger jet flights per year. On the other hand, the time it takes governments to get regulations in place, things may well have changed.
[*] Space tourists to the ISS stay a hell of a lot less time than crew, and crew are monitored already, so by definition, the "tourists" are too.
Soon it will be de rigueur for the libertarian billionaire class to flaunt their mutations, to show that they've been to space, unlike the lesser fry. They will be desperate to get to the next cocktail party, in order to show off the new ear that's growing out of their chin.
The big decisions for the submarine were made by the CEO, not an engineer. The manufacturers wrote back that the parts ordered were not qualified for the depths listed in the purchaser's advertising and offered to build parts of the required strength. The CEO thought he knew better.
But so what? I understand that it was a tragedy for the families involved but I struggle to see why it should be seen as anything more than that. They paid their money, they were told multiple times in the contract that it could kill them. They all surely had enough money to find out how dodgy it was (several people backed out precisely because of that).
For me it only becomes a problem when people are unknowingly dragged into the tragedy. So if a private space craft falls on a populated area and injures or killed people that needs regulation. But if a bunch of rich people choose to take the risk of going to space then good for them. It will spur further investment in space and if they die - whilst being a tragedy for friends and family - it just helps redistribute their wealth.
Not sure why the government needs to be involved for this at all.
Surely anyone getting in an experimental rocketship has signed a contract before handing over hundreds of thousands of dollars for the privilege. Just as surely that contract outlines that the passenger is assuming all risk for the trip, even if that contract was written by a 1st year law student.
Its not like their organisation is going to pony up the cost of a single flight on either Blue Origin or SpaceX rockets, to say nothing of paying for enough flights to generate enough non-astronaut data for it to make a difference. Besides, many, if not most of worlds astronauts are pilots, so how are they going to control for flight time?
The passenger and the space tourism operating company agree that said passenger should not develop any health issues from the trip to space.
If said passenger fails to adhere to the above clause, the operating company reserves its right to seek damages from said passenger.
The first plan for regulation of space tourism was to wait a few more years until it became clear what regulations would be useful. When the deadline arrived Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic both argued they were still too clueless to propose useful regulations so the deadline was extended.
The purpose of regulation is to set a common safety bar for all providers. An accident caused by one provider cheaping out damages the prospects for all. The regulations will come eventually. The tricky part will be getting them to focus on passenger safety rather than bashing competitors.
Those space tourism market size numbers are silly. It looks like they were created so Branson can sell off the last of his Virgin Galactic shares before the shit hits the fan. When that time came for Virgin Orbit Branson lent VO a little operating capitol in return for a claim on all the assets. The asset sale repaid Branson's investment leaving the other investors with a company with nothing but debts. I expect the same plan to work for VG.
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