Mars Needs Elon

Don’t hold your breath, although inhabiting the surface of Mars will expose you to more radiation than the surface of our planet, it’s because of the thinner atmosphere and lack of a planetary magnetic field. If the particles hitting the planet are sufficiently energetic, they could turn heavy metals in the soil into radioactive isotopes, but as the article I linked to indicates, surface radiation on Mars is .67mSv per 24 hours, while exposure on the spacecraft while traveling to Mars is 1.8mSv per 24 hours, and the vast majority of the radiation on the surface of Mars is stellar in origin.

For reference, average annual radiation exposure in the United States is about 6.2mSv/year and an exposure of 1Sv is associated with about a 5% increase in the risk of death from cancer.

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