How To Save Lives, Prevent The Cargo From Exploding And Also Avoid Having To Jettison It In Space
Get crew from several ships to cut the sail into fifteen-yard squares.
Layer the squares within a welded framework to shield the cargo section.
Keep shield, cargo section and hauling herdship facing directly into the blast of the solar flare.
The herdship pilot, loaded with anti-fatigue pills and psychodrugs, must continually counteract gravity which tries to swing the ensemble into orbit.
I have done my best to understand both the danger and the means taken to avert it but still have some questions which arise purely from my lack of scientific and technical knowledge:
we are told that the herdship's own internal shielding "...drank up..." (p. 242) lethal radiation which seems to mean that the herdship crew would have been safe in any case?;
they haul the cargo to where a tug can collect it in the Moon's shadow whereas their previous plan had been to "...valve it out..." (p. 225) at a safe distance from Earth and Moon so why has the use of the improvised sail shield changed this part of the plan?
I am sure that the answers to these questions are obvious to readers with any knowledge of celestial mechanics.
1 comment:
At least part of the problem is that gravity gradient (aka. tidal) forces will tend to pull a spacecraft away from some desired orientation, in this case keeping the shielding between the sun & the cargo.
The James Webb Space Telescope similarly needs to keep most of it behind a sunshield to keep it cold. However, since that isn't a jury-rigged setup it can do that with automation rather than humans desperately keeping themselves awake.
If I understand correctly, the cargo is *more* sensitive to radiation than humans are.
If the cargo can be kept from exploding then it isn't a hazard to equipment in Earth orbit & so does not need to be dumped at a safe distance from the Earth and Moon.
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