Artemis II and the invisible hazard on the way to the Moon

zeristor 84 points 67 comments April 10, 2026
www.ansto.gov.au · View on Hacker News

Discussion Highlights (4 comments)

Terr_

> Dose rate matters. Particle type matters. Direction matters. Shielding matters. There's an old story where a professor quizzes his physics class about how to most-safely distribute different kinds of radiation sources. A common variation involves three baked cookies, emitting alpha particles, beta, and gamma respectively. One must be eaten, one must be held in your hand, and one must be placed in a pocket. A hint, and what I think is the interesting part of the answer, involves the idea that a victim is a lot like shielding. Things which are difficult to block are also things that are less-likely to stop and ruin your day.

zeristor

I thought one of the things with New Space is that Commercial off the Shelf parts were being used more and more. I’m assuming if that’s a case there have been more mishaps. How does SpaceX tackle this with both the rockets, and the thousand of Starlinks.

voidUpdate

I enjoy how moon-landing deniers will use the van Allen belts as a reason for why the astronauts could not have made it to the moon because of radiation exposure. Like, you don't believe NASA that they went to the moon, but you believe NASA that the van Allen belts exist?

baggachipz

> Artemis II and the invisible hazard Decent Harry Potter book title

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