From: zili@home   
      
   Am 8 Apr 2004 17:08:40 -0700 schrieb "sanman":   
      
   >[...]   
   >surfaces are still useful. Will the lack of an atmosphere pose further   
   >problems for handling the craft? What about cosmic radiation at this   
   >high and unprotected altitude? Do the pilots have adequate shielding,   
   >or would the exposure be too brief?   
      
   About radiation hazards you could ask the Habus (SR-71 crews). These   
   had several hours in that environment on every sortie, and their   
   planes weren't shielded against cosmic radiation, too. And you could   
   ask the X-15 pilots the same questions as well.   
      
   But because there are not so many of them around (SR-71/X-15 crews),   
   you could alternatively read their memoirs. But I can say you, that in   
   /none/ of the memoirs I read radiation hazards were mentioned as a   
   real threat influencing the operation modes or mission plans.   
      
   cu, ZiLi aka HKZL (Heinrich Zinndorf-Linker)   
   --   
                              /"\  ASCII Ribbon Campaign   
   mailto:heinrich@zili.de    \ /   
   http://zili.de              X         No HTML in   
                              / \       email & news   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)