DescentBB

I never said it was more than a hunch, but I am willing to bet on it. Also, I never said they did or didn't go directly into the solar wind, I wondered if they did or not. I'm betting they didn't though, why would they? You go when the conditons are best. I also imagine the suits provide a fair bit of protection but I wonder how and what kind of problems thye may have experienced later in life. I've gotten lazy Roid, you are correct, but it's mainly because threads always go this way. I've went to great pains in other threads. It's like the energy weapon thread. I imagined that you COULD build a big enough laser to mount as a viable weapon and that energy weapons were entirely feasible. I got all kinds of response about how it's nonsense and how at the moment it's impossible. Well, at this very moment they are mounting them to ships, planes and vehicles. I mean ultimately we are discussing long time survival of man outside of the protective covering of the Earth's magnetosphere. I would also suggest that the magnetosheath is still a protective part of the magnetosphere, though to a lesser degree and I wonder what kind of dumbass stands directly into the oncoming Solar Wind. Hell, they have not even been adventerous enough to experience the magnetotail. Now, who is right? If these instruments were used to measure the solar wind while the moon was in the magnetotail, BUT, no astronaut has been in the magnetotail, how can your argument stand? I still say that they took the best window of opportunity and low risk and THEN deployed the instruments and got the hell out before risking even higher exposure.

I wanna talk to the monkey damnit . I know there's one that knows what a direct blast from the Sun will do to you

flip wrote:If these instruments were used to measure the solar wind while the moon was in the magnetotail

what, where did THAT part come from? I never said the Solar Wind Composition experiments were conducted while in the magnetotail. I said they collected solar wind particles, and i imagine it was during the 2/3rds of the time while the moon was outside of the magnetopause (and by extension also outside of the magnetotail). Perhaps even outside of the bowshock while in the full solar wind! But even if not in the full wind - it was still clearly collecting at least some of the solar wind you have been suggesting is so deadly, and while amongst concurrent astronaut presence no less.

AFAIK the magnetotail contains ZERO solar wind, but i dunno maybe it funnels/focuses through it somehow and makes it more dangerous? i don't recall specifically what your rumours implied about that, if you attached some kindof reference i might feel motivated to do more than dismiss it offhand as rumour. hint hint if you got into a habit of accompanying your quotes with sources (preferably respectable or even authoriative), your statements would have more weight, ie: they'd be less likely to be ignored.

BTW thanks for referencing my spacesuit, i was beginning to forget the train of topics. The suit would likely need some sort of shielding, given current tech it'd likely have to be electro-magnetic. Long-term astronaut activity with current in-use space-tech is infeasible, radiation exposure is too high, i would expect Apollo mission astronauts to have a slightly elevated life-time risk of ionising-radiation related illnesses (eg: cancers) from even their relatively short adventures. But in the spirit of the thread i have to admit i'm unfamiliar with the figures, i hope they are rather negligible for their sakes, but i'd assume one wouldn't want to be out there for any longer than they were.

And of course while outside of the Sun's heliosphere (being quite reliant on non-solar power sources), in interstellar space, you'd likely need some serious shielding indeed for your crops and yourself.

The source clearly says that there was hardly any detection of particles by the instruments when in the magnetotail. I think I'm retired

Because the Solar Wind Spectrometer made continuous measurements, it was possible to measure how the Earth's magnetic field affects arriving solar wind particles. For about two-thirds of each orbit, the Moon is outside of the Earth's magnetic field. At these times, a typical proton density was 10 to 20 per cubic centimeter,with most protons having velocities between 400 and 650 kilometers per second. For about five days of each month, the Moon is inside the Earth's geomagnetic tail, and typically no solar wind particles were detectable

retired?

the Spectrometer was automated and reported back longterm (unmanned) measurements, which included of the magnetotail.
The Composition experiments however were accompanied by astronaut escort for the entire (short) time they were deployed, and i doubt it was deployed during the typically dry magnetotail pass since it's whole purpose was to capture solar wind samples to return to Earth (you don't get any solar wind at all during a magnetotail pass).

roid wrote:...the Solar Wind Composition (ie: different to the solar wind Spectrometer...

The solar wind isn't the really dangerous component about being out in space. Even the surface of the earth used to be uninhabitable by all life before the great oxygen catastrophe because there was no ozone. Earth still had a magnetic field that protected it from the solar wind before the great oxygen catastrophe, but the surface was still bathed in deadly solar radiation which is completely undeterred by a magnetic field. The solar wind is a relatively harmless stream of charged particles, solar radiation on the other hand is straight up ionizing radiation of the same type that you would get from a leaking nuclear reactor.

Also the reason people suspect the moon may have electrical discharges and disturbances while in the earths magnetic tail has almost nothing to do with the solar wind, it is the result of a very simple and reliable phenomenon that we take for granted in every day life: Wave a conductor through a magnetic field and it produces electricity.