Saturn's Enceladus

My science fiction story will be based around a research mission to Saturn’s moon Enceladus, to study possible life. I will split the story into two parts; one discussing the trip to the far off moon and the dangers and solutions used during travel and the other part about the research and activities that take place while on the moon. I will talk about drilling into the ice, the possibilities of life and also about the effects of Saturn that are acting upon the moon.
As many people know, leaving the planet is a very dangerous task. Things cam go wrong during the launch, and things can go wrong during orbit. During the space race, the United States was able to accomplish an incredible task of landing people on our moon. However, this is the
farthest the human race has ever explored, in person, outside of our home planet Earth. If mankind is too exploring past our own planet and satellite, we are going to be able to overcome the many dangers of long-term space travel. This length of space travel can have its dangers broken down into three main categories. These three categories are the effects of radiation on the body, the effects off low or zero gravity on the body, and the psychological effects of long-term isolation on the body. Each of these categories present unique dangers and obstacles to overcome, however, solutions have already been found from some of the dangers, and research is currently being conducted to solve the remaining dangers. Radiation is the first and probably most understood danger of space.
Our own star, the Sun, is a huge dispenser of radiation. Normally, on Earth, this is not a big problem. The Earth’s atmosphere acts as a protective layer, blocking most of the Sun’s radiation from reaching the surface of the Earth. A little reaches the surface, and it is show as sun burns that people get when in the sunlight too long. They are painful but not life threating when the burn is present. In space astronauts are not so lucky. When leaving their home planet they are leaving their own protective barrier that would shield them from the harmful rays of the sun. The dangers of radiation come from when a human is hit with radiation particles. There are three types of radiation, alpha, beta, and gamma (Radioactivity). Alpha radiation is not a big concern to the external body. It is low energy and cannot penetrate the skin. It only becomes dangerous, and it is the most dangerous, if it gets inside the body, because once it is in, it cannot get out. This only happens if is ingested. It is fairly easy to avoid because it cannot penetrate skin making it so astronauts only need to avoid digesting this type, which is easy to do. Beta radiation is the next type of radiation and is more dangerous outside the body than alpha radiation. This is the type of radiation that is used to fight cancer. Beta is smaller and has a higher energy, as compared to alpha, which allows it to damage skin and enter the body.
Beta radiation can cause radiation burn, radiation sickness and tissue damage. Gamma radiation is the final and most dangerous type of radiation. This radiation is extremely high energy which makes it extremely difficult to block. It takes a few feet of concrete or a few inches of lead to stop. This type easily enters the body and causes burns and radiation sickness (Grabianowski). All of these are dangerous but alpha particles are easy to deal with because, the materials the ships are made of can block them. Gamma radiation is the difficult one to stop, because, as previously stated, only concrete and lead can block them. That means that the only ways to stop the particles is be making the ship have a layer of lead around it or by having a specific room which is lined with lead for times with high gamma radiation concentrations. Concrete is not a viable option for space travel because it bulky and heavy, which is not conducive to space travel.
The next danger of space travel is the effects of low or no gravity on the human body.
Humans evolved on Earth which means that we as a species to work best in the Erath’s environment. Human bodies are not used to feeling weightless for long periods of time, they are used to the feeling of the pull off Earth’s gravity all the time. This causes the body to react is unusual ways because of this new freedom. There are some side effects that aren’t dangerous such as height gain and face swelling. The low gravity allows the disks in a person back to expand adding an inch or two to a person height. Astronauts’ faces also sometimes temporally swell due to fluid moving up the body towards the face due to decreased gravity (Dickerson). Other more serious side effects cause by decreased gravity are a decrease in bone density, a decrease in muscle mass, and a suppression of the immune system. The reduced stress on the bones causes them to weaken over time making it so, in space and on return to Earth, it is easier to break a bone. It is very similar to osteoporosis. The way to counter act this is for astronauts to exercise regularly and eat a very nutritional diet, which targets strong bones. Muscle decay is also a big problem. This cause of it is very simple; in space you don’t need to use the same amount of muscle or forced to move and work so the muscle mass decreases from lack of use (Dickerson). This is also a fixed my regular exercise, however exercising in no gravity is
difficult. Astronauts must use special lifting and running machines where they must be strapped in so they don’t float away and so they actually feel a resistance while working out.