[ RadSafe ] Mars Dosimetry Mission

[JPreisig at aol.com]

Dear Radsafe:
 
 
      From:   _jpreisig at aol.com_ (mailto:jpreisig at aol.com)       .
 
      Hope you all are doing well.
 
      Mars Dosimetry Mission(s)...Not a real USA  Space/NASA/Mars Mission 
yet, but it should be.
      NASA could probably get this launch mission  off and running in five 
years or less.
      It would be an unmanned,  conventionally/chemically launched 
spacecraft (similar to the Apollo
      capsule???) which would be remotely  controlled from Earth.  The 
destination would be Mars,
      with a one-way travel time of 3 months to 3  years???
 
      Of course, the primary purpose of this  mission would be to get to 
Mars and back.  The first 
      such mission wouldn't even need a Mars  Landing Module.  Such a 
landing module could be
      included in subsequent manned or unmanned  Missions.
 
      The other purpose of such of a mission would  be to instrument the 
spacecraft with particle (charged
      particles, neutrons etc.) detectors,  gamma/Xray detectors and 
similar things.
      There might possibly be Bonner Multisphere  spectrometers and plastic 
scintillator (activation)
      detectors to measure neutron spectra from  thermal neutron energies 
to 400 MeV or above.
 
           Some of the  detector experiments would be official NASA/DOD/DOE 
experiments.
      Other experiments could be planned/designed  by high school, college 
and/or grad students
      etc. as has been done previously.
 
           Something to  think about???!!!!
 
           Brookhaven  National Lab has a new Health Physics calibration 
facility (next to Building  348)
        (the NEW??? facility dates back  to about 1998 or so).  It has an 
elevated platform for doing
        neutron measurements and a high  activity Cs-137 source (if it 
indeed was installed as
        planned).  The new facility  is big, roomy, and probably is quite 
nice to use.  Maybe someone
        from the Laboratory  (Kahnhauser???) can tell you how the results 
there are working out.
 
                Sometimes Trees is a poem by Joyce Kilmer (a Rutgers 
alumnus).
 
                Sometimes DU is not Depleted Uranium.  It could be 
interpreted as a small  change in some
         U parameter (i.e. delta  U).  Sometimes DU stands for a Greek 
Letter Social fraternity
         (I am not a DU).  All  this is just scattered information.
 
          Take  Care...    Regards,     Joseph R. (Joe)  Preisig, PhD