Monday, January 25, 2021

Shields up, captain

I've been looking at SVL2 not least to shield from "radiation". Project Rho is telling me that "radiation" differs depending on what is radiating. This close to the sun, I am that much closer to Proton Storms. That is ionic hydrogen.

Not neutrons. I don't think [UPDATE 2/2] solar neutrons are NOT going relativistic, not if Alfvén-powered protons are only at 200 km/s. So any neutrons decay into hydrogen ions long before they get to Venus. So never mind the boron or the vanadium or whatever.

From L2 and its tightest Lissajous I'm shielded from the main body. Yay! Except that my shield is Venus' cloud tier which has now added to the ions in its own ion wind . . . Also I am still in space so I still get cosmic radiation, whatever shield blocks the Sun. These get pretty powerful.

From ions, it is a bad idea to shield any enclosed space with metals alone. The German word is Bremsstrahlung: apparently ions hit metals and bathe the interior with X-rays.

Some mad lads recommend superconductors, to blow off the ions with f'ing magnets. That might work if my engineers are awesome and stick to the L2 point. Otherwise I won't count on them. SVL2 is as a rule Vesta cold, not Triton cold. And the inner Lissajous orbit I expect more like our own Moon in daylight.

I should be shielding my outer shell with paraffin - with something that can soak up hydrogen and other cations, anyway. Low density. The inner hull thus shielded can be made of whatever, doesn't have to be lead; good ol' titanium should do it. Certainly my outer shield will be thicker up front than on the side but the side will need sheathing too.

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