In 1936, after 24 years of denial by the scientific community, Hess won the Nobel prize acknowledging his discovery as somewhat important. In 1999, their origin is still only theoretical, a series of best guesses.

The Earth's surface, and lifeforms like humans, are shielded from the influence of cosmic rays by the Earth's magnetic field and the magnetic field associated with the solar wind --- which flows like a river from the Sun to, around, and beyond the Earth.

Patrick M. Hurley has written that the energy of most cosmic ray particles exceed a billion electron volts. Entering the Earth's atmosphere they smash into atoms and knock out electrons and protons thereby changing the atmospheric elements by ionization. Most of these secondary radiations and particles are held in the atmosphere at various elevations by a combination of the Earth's gravitation, magnetic field, and other factors.

Cosmic rays are extremely penetrating micro-matter (atomic nuclei) which travel through space at speeds approaching that of light. These rays have far more energy (impact, destructiveness) than the alpha, beta, and gamma rays emitted by radioactive atoms, and, are that much more fatal. Cosmic rays - particles are strongly affected by magnetic fields.

There is no known technically available, economical, and lightweight portable or human designed barrier to cosmic rays. They can penetrate many feet of soil, rock, and metal. After penetrating through and interacting with a 10,000 mile protective magnetosphere of the Earth, AND, 600 miles of atmospheric molecules, cosmic rays are still powerful enough to penetrate up to 10 or 20 feet of rock or concrete or many floors of a tall building. Striking the molecules of dense physical objects often results in the destruction of those molecules and the generation of secondary particles --- which may then represent a greater density of less penetrating though dangerous radiations.

Hydrogen has been suggested as a possible barrier in a National Research Council press release, quoting Brookhaven National Laboratory Senior Biologist Richard B. Setlow --- who acknowledged the impracticality of it for humans. Galactic microwave radiation, also dangerous to terrestrial life, is also believed to interact with cosmic rays. Essentially, beyond the protection of the Earth's larger environment, humanity has no protection.

Hurley goes on to define for us that

"50,000 to 100,000 millirads of overexposure are sufficient to produce a decrease in white cell (immune) count, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, bleeding. At least 50% of humanity would be expected to die from an exposure of 500,000 millirads. The body can repair the damage of lower exposures given optimal original health and adequate healing time and positive maintenance processes. Cancers, tumors, leukemia, genetic mutation and immune dysfunction are all possibilities of chronic higher levels of radiation exposure. A single radiation dose of 10,000 millirads is sufficient in some cases for this result."

This does not even to begin to address the "penetration" reality and destructiveness of cosmic rays --- which make them that much more deadly than the non-particle types of radiation discussed above.

The difficulty of doing research to confirm details about the degree of presence and danger of cosmic rays is highlighted by the fact that if you can detect them, they are already destroying your cells. The crude atomic weapons exploded over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, were a source of cosmic rays and other harmful radiations for a matter of seconds. Studying a true source of cosmic rays is like sticking your head in a microwave oven and pushing the ON button.

Artificial, human controlled targeted beams of rays are, and must be, of miniscule influence.
Projecting possible dangers to humans in space from "safe" terrestrial experiments is like suggesting the degree of safety to a long-distance swimmer of the toxins in a lake by observing the influence of dipping one toe into the water at the beach for 2 seconds!

In 2003, we are quite certain that there are no other terrestrial-like lifeforms within a million miles of the Earth. A child can reason from this judgement that space must be fatal to terrestrial life ... and we are not just talking an absence of air molecules. With solar winds, galactic dust, meteorite showers, meteor burn-ups, asteroid fly-bys, and comet swing-pasts ... the Earth would be in a state of constant invasion by potentially predatory viruses, microbes and other life IF space was more friendly.

In the 1996 National Research Council report on Radiation Hazards to humans of cosmic rays, the readers were cautioned that beyond the magnetosphere of the Earth ...

• levels of radiation far exceed those on Earth;
• adequate shielding (OR) ... deleterious health effects ...
  • cell killing, mutations, chromosomal changes;
  • increased cancer induction is likely;
  • negative central nervous system changes;
  • cataract formation;
  • effects on body organs;
  • skin damage.

Predictably, researchers have been hired to investigate and remedy the basis concerns of the military: electronic component stability in a hostile environment. Politically, weapons have always taken priority over humans.

The Report tactfully excludes the mention of death.
A number of the members of the Space Studies Board and the Commission on Physical Sciences, Mathematics, and Applications --- who must sanction the report --- represent companies which have benefited highly from their business involvement in the US$ 100 billion plus "space" exploration industry. These include:

• Brookhaven National Laboratory;
• Oakridge National Laboratory;
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
• IBM Corporation;
• TRW Space and Technology Group;
• Lockheed Martin Astronautics Company;
• AT&T Bell Laboratories;
• United Technologies Corporation, and
• many technology-oriented universities.

It is never a consideration of whether we continue down a doomed path or not but rather a question of how do we keep the ball rolling ... until it hits a wall.

The shielding required to protect a crew from cosmic radiation --- other known hazards and problems already having been accounted for --- is expected to cost between $10 and $30 billion and require 10 to 20 years of concentrated research effort to develop. Space industry expense projections in the past have consistently fallen short of requirement by as much as 1000% These are projections based on the fact that in 1999 there was no knowledge of what would make up such a barrier!

In a press release carried by CNN, Senior Biophysicist, Richard Setlow is quoted:

"There's no question that astronauts on the way to Mars would be zapped millions of times by cosmic and solar rays .... The number of particles over a long mission is great enough that on the average every cell in the body is traversed (struck by a particle)."

The short span of recorded human history has demonstrated a human striving for material wealth. Unwilling to control our ability to multiply our numbers, we have repeatedly expanded our territorial requirements and domination at the expense of each other and the environment. Unwilling to respect other forms of life, and ourselves, we have destroyed and toxically infused our surroundings and ourselves.

Unwilling to recognize our physical limits, we have been sacrificing our greatest opportunity for individual self-awareness, social and cultural harmony, and spiritual growth in the last 3500 years ... to fund an intellectual fantasy of once again leaving our mess behind ... in the hope of finding another frontier "clean" of:

• overpopulation;
• abuse and greed;
• overcompetitiveness;
• pollution and sickness;
• pride, hate, ignorance.

IMPACT:
Microwaves agitate cell contents.
Cosmic rays pierce cells.
Cosmic rays are tiny particles leaving tiny holes.
Microwaves on HI power will surely kill you in 20 minutes.
If cosmic rays were only 1/3,000,000 nth as dense ---
It would take an exposure to them for 3,000,000 X 20 minutes,
that is, 60 million minutes, OR 1 million hours, ---
OR 41,666 days, OR 114 years with equal cell damage rates
for them to kill you.

CELL DAMAGE:
Cosmic rays are tiny particles leaving tiny holes.
Biological systems will be negatively stressed.
Cell repair processes will be exercised increasingly, until
Immune function is weakened, and.
Cell death is inevitable.
Degree of relative damage could be 250 times greater than the vibratory (heating) damage of microwaves.

RELATIVE FATALITY:
How fast anything will kill you depends upon how much you are exposed to and how toxic the factor is. Water is not very toxic, but too much can kill you. Phenyl is very toxic. A teaspoonful will kill you. Generally, the shorter the wavelength of radiation, the more toxic it is. Cosmic rays are the shortest wavelength of energy known to humans. Its ability to penetrate is similar to its degree of toxicity. Cosmic rays can easily penetrate rock, steel, earth --- and you, more than 250 times the ability of microwaves to do so.

 

Looking around ...

Sanctioning does have some disadvantages.
The field of science is best engaged in by individuals who love to learn and innovate, who are open minded, and, who are not afraid of risk. Such is not an acceptable business investment model. Few such persons get past the "You're a nut!" stage to get financing for their interests. Most have worked at mundane jobs to earn a living to support themselves and their investigations.

Sanctioned authority is given by someone or some institution which has political or social power which commands, or demands, the respect and confidence of large numbers of persons. Such authority and conveyed confidence much more easily raises money for "research" than does the "scientist" described above. However, the "authority" must deliver a perceivable benefit to the masses, or, confidence and investment monies are taken elsewhere. The bottom line is that the result of the efforts of the scientist must be seen to be successful, and, must be made to seem to be successful --- whether they are or not.

Once power is centralized in the hands of a minority --- leaders, a need arises to make efficient the selection of participants who will actually undertake and complete the risky work according to a somewhat dependable rate of success. It has increasingly become the practice for industrialized and post-industrialized nations to try and replicate legions of scientists by patterning them with the procedures, attitudes, beliefs, and expectations --- suspected of having assisted in the success of past professionals. So, huge numbers of technicians --- who dutifully follow orders, procedures, assignments --- feed and become consumed into a bureaucracy which works to pleasure its leaders and assure the masses that all is going as they have been told that it will.

The reality of this process is that any scientifically gifted individual often feels forced to surrender those traits of individualism required for true innovation in order to earn a respectable wage. Doing so rewards him or her with acceptance by and inclusion in the main culture. Huge sums of money are then spent --- often for minimal scientific gain --- and great amounts of effort are funneled into making excuses (rationalizations) and acknowledgements (confidence marketing) for the results.

The final outcome is that a great number of taxpayers elect to work hard and be poor in support of a great number of people who are charged with delivering some measure of hope and excitement to the former. Material comfort and gain increase while emotional and spiritual satisfaction and strength decline. In the end, a "flat-Earth" society becomes flatlined dead.

The political-industrial dominated "scientific" industry and academia have allowed and encouraged their supporters to be mentored and led by an equally powerful and huge $100 billion entertainment industry. After 100 years of fictional science being beamed into their radios, televisions, movie theatres, books, and VCR's --- most taxpayers and public no longer know the difference between fact and fiction --- and have lost the will and desire to make the effort to find out.

Devoid of personal experience in professional science, the public are easily deceived. Selling illusions (advertising) has been itself a $100 billion enterprise over the past 50 years. Doing whatever it takes to make a profit has long ago replaced an earlier belief in doing something because it fundamentally improved the quality of life of oneself AND the community.

Those persons who believe that humanity can fulfil the vanities and dreams of their mass media intergalactic and space station heroes are no different from those who 5 centuries ago believed that the Earth was flat. "Scientists" still believed during the 1950s the scenario imagined in the science fiction novel Dune --- that the surface of the Moon would be covered with fine sand so deep and "liquid" that spacecraft and astronauts would sink out of sight after landing.

Proving the Earth was not flat reversed much of the power structure of human civilization. Rich and powerful nations became poor, while poor and non-existent ones grew to dominate. For hundreds of years, hundreds of thousands of people were killed by execution, torture, starvation, epidemic -- ignorance. Denial was preserved. A power reversal has happened many times before. It could happen again.

Humans abdicating to space to escape a planet and a civilization which has been driven to near self-destruction is just one example of human self-denial revealed in Project Earth ... A Report.

Most businesses have some form of organization, leadership, planning, and procedure.
Innovation can supplement and replace other initiatives to decrease costs, reach larger markets and enhance product or service functionality. A decision to employ one priority versus another has, for decades, come to depend on the financial benefit which the political (leadership), persuasive (advertising and entertainment), and dependency (academia and engineering - technology) industries can gain.

Human history has shown that each of these can benefit humanity only when their first priority is not their own self survival but when it is their service to a spiritual mentor or God approached with reverence. Pride and greed have replaced reverence. The result has been an increasing tsunami of social and individual chronic problems which threaten to drown our species from existence. A more spiritual path has always been available and has always been a choice.
What is your choice?

"Legacy information" refers to recorded experiences and practices that can suggest the relevancy of current standards. The contained information may not be out-of-date or obsolete because it has the capacity to mentor the interacting individual using it with the demonstrated real life development lines and outcomes which have previously defined real capacities and limits. A legacy infobase can bring a new lease to the life of individuals and cultures if widespread access to it are available. That is a potential of the Internet.
That is a goal of Project Earth ... A Report.

 

SPACE is defined here as that ex-terrestrial region of the universe which extends out beyond the Earth's climactic, gravitational, atmospheric, and magnetic field influence. Climate and weather influences are largely absent above an altitude of as little as 20 miles (32 km). The Earth's atmosphere is largely absent above an altitude of 450 miles (720 km), the edge of the exosphere.

The Earth's magnetosphere (region influenced by the magnetic lines of force radiating out from the Earth's magnetic poles) extends out from the Earth's surface up to an altitude of 10,000 miles (16,000 km). The two Van Allen radiation belts (3,000 and 10,000 miles altitudes) are huge, effective cosmic radiation shields within the magnetosphere. It is this region which is largely responsible for deflecting and defusing cosmic rays from their common presence in "outer" space to less than 2% strength along much of the Earth's surface and through much of its atmosphere. "Space" extends beyond 10,000 miles altitude.

All so-termed human conceived "space" stations have operated in the region of the upper atmosphere ... well below any exposure to cosmic radiation intensity of the level common in real space. Scientists and politicians have been telling taxpayers for 30 years that they have been travelling into and exploring an ocean while only venturing to dip a toe into the water at the beach. Engineers and scientists involved in "space" programs have been fully aware of the dangers to human life of full cosmic ray exposure since before 1969! Otherwise, why not travel and live far beyond the 450 mile altitude?