If the AI people are correct, we will have human equivalent robots which will be able to do all a human can do and with greater efficiency and less cost in about 20 years . We can wait until then and in the twenty years after that, with the continued exponential growth in robotics and super-human AI , we will then have all the scientific know-how necessary to allow humans into space completely safely if we still want to do that ..
The protection now afforded astronauts utilizing current science is far too shoddy and space is far too hostile an environment for unaided or insufficiently aided human space flight .

There are also far better uses for the resources expended to make these unnecessarily showy and expensive space ventures which are, far too often, military in nature .

…all I could think about when I read this is that sending humans to explore space is like sending fish to explore the land on a hot sunny day….

…lets hope that the research that comes from this will help the rest of us here on earth (fix negative effects of Alzheimer’s, or combat radiation poisoning, etc). Maybe if they can truly crack our own DNA codes, we can just regrow anything/everything we need or send the body into a repair sequence without limits?

Bots can learn all we need to know :-)

Best wishes and Happt New Year, all.

Divide 5 rems by your present Natural Background Radiation. For Americans, Natural Background Radiation is at least .35 rems/year. Our Natural Background Radiation uses up our 5 rems/lifetime when we are 14 years old.

Natural Background Radiation is radiation that was always there, 1000 years ago, a million years ago, etc. Natural Background Radiation comes from the rocks in the ground and from exploding stars thousands of light years away. All rocks contain uranium. Radon gas is a decay product of uranium.