While I'm sure it's a technical hurdle in itself, I didn't think that fuel or weight were the big problems with a manned mission to Mars. I'm curious as to what Mr. Musk's plan is for shielding passengers from intersteller radiation that one would experience outside of our magnetosphere.
The Apollo astronauts were exposed to approximately 1140 millirem over a 9 day mission, while the average here on earth is 350 millirem per year. Nuclear workers are limited to about 2000 millirem per year... so the approximately 52,000 millirem per year the astronauts would receive on a Mars mission is a problem.
The Apollo astronauts were exposed to approximately 1140 millirem over a 9 day mission, while the average here on earth is 350 millirem per year. Nuclear workers are limited to about 2000 millirem per year... so the approximately 52,000 millirem per year the astronauts would receive on a Mars mission is a problem.