Shield Astronauts

Hi dear friends!

Ionizing radiations emitted at Solar flares are said to be a concern for astronauts, say on a trip to Mars.

If the rays are parallel enough, and their direction varies slowly enough, here's a possibility to make a shield lighter and more efficient:

The (here purple) shield stops most primary rays from the Solar flare, and inevitably creates secondary rays by bremsstrahlung, whose gammas and X-rays are difficult to stop. The trick is to put this shield farther from the craft, at some habitat sizes away (I'd link it mechanically) but keep it just slightly bigger than the habitat. Then, most secondary rays don't hit the habitat.

An other shield (here green) is still required againt the remaining secondary rays and against the isotropic cosmic rays.

Marc Schaefer, aka Enthalpy