Just how dangerous is it to travel at 20% the speed of light?

Re:Just how dangerous is it to travel at 20% the speed of li... by scrumper on Wednesday August 24, 2016 @01:53PM (#12353877)

Charlie Stross wrote recently about the threat of beta radiation to these small probes[1]. This isn't discussed at all in this article or the associated paper[2] which focuses on purely mechanical collision effects. Anyone know if this is a separate consideration for another research group?

[1] http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2016/08/san-trom...

[2] http://arxiv.org/pdf/1608.05284v1.pdf

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Re:Just how dangerous is it to travel at 20% the speed of li... by T-A on Wednesday August 24, 2016 @03:19PM (#12354523)

Alpha, not beta (beta radiation is just electrons):

> Roughly 1% of the ISM consists of helium atoms, and we have a technical term for an ionized helium nucleus travelling at roughly 2% of the speed of light—6000km/sec—we call it an alpha particle.

The article pretty much debunks [1] by concluding that heavier atoms do most damage, but are still manageable.

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Re:Just how dangerous is it to travel at 20% the speed of li... by scrumper on Wednesday August 24, 2016 @04:38PM (#12355074)

Thanks for the correction! Bad memory on my part.

So the article refutes [1] because the relatively easy to manage mechanical effects of those alpha particles on the spacecraft exterior mean that it actually functions as an effective, long-term shield against alpha particles?

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