Re: Nukes and such.
Graeme Lennon (graeme@balefire.net)
Wed, 20 Oct 1999 22:05:21 -0400 (EDT)
> 1) Hard radiation from a nuclear blast would be deadlyat between
> close and medium ranges - no atmosphere to stop the radiation pulse,
> so even the "light" stuff would go a long way. Gamma rays don't stop
> for much of anything anyways, so they'd be a killer no matter what.
Any real starship would have to have massive amounts of radiation
shielding anyway, or the crew would die the first time they happened to be
in-system and the sun had a bad flare. This is one of the major problems
facing any manned Mars missions right now, actually.
There's a really tense scene covering that issue in Kim Stanley Robinson's
Mars trilogy (highly recommended, btw)... and I should really stop with
the non sequitors. ;)
The whole contact range things is also affected here -- there's obviously
no fallout in space, either.
--
Graeme Lennon -=- graeme@balefire.net -=- Montreal, Canada
... deadening the flow of relentless biography ...
