From: henry@spsystems.net   
      
   In article ,   
   Tim McDaniel  wrote:   
   >>The way to protect against micrometeorites (and in LEO, space debris)   
   >>is with multiple thin "bumper" shields spaced well out...   
   >   
   >I take it that that doesn't work for cosmic rays -- enough shielding   
   >far out to break up the cosmic ray particles, and distance from the   
   >bumper shields to let time take care of the cosmic ray fragments?   
   >That could only work if the fragments were almost all slow or almost   
   >all very quick to decay.   
      
   Alas, cosmic rays are very energetic, and so many of the secondaries are   
   moving very fast and go a long way before decaying.  The showers of   
   secondaries from cosmic rays being stopped in the upper atmosphere are   
   easily detected on the ground; in fact, the muon and the pion were both   
   first discovered as cosmic-ray secondaries.  Also, some of the eventual   
   decay products would themselves remain dangerous, e.g. fragments of nuclei   
   might decay a little but wouldn't disappear.   
   --   
   "Think outside the box -- the box isn't our friend."    |   Henry Spencer   
                                   -- George Herbert       | henry@spsystems.net   
      
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