Space Radiation Concerns

Wouldn't radiation and meteorites be a huge concern?

The problem is radiation from solar storms. There is no protective magnetic field. On the ground, it is possible to go underground for those periods, in space, not so much. There is no light-weight option for shielding all that radiation, and being exposed to all of those your whole life is really bad.

You are absorbing more radiation from your computer monitor than you would get from an asteroid. The real danger is being unshielded from the sun's radiation due to the lack of a protective magnetic field. This is easily solved by radiation shielding in the spacecraft, or tunneling underground once established on the asteroid.

I think it's for solar and cosmic radiation.

Why should radiation be much more of a concern than for rockets? (Couldn't you just add shielding?)

Probably not. It looks like that's primarily for gamma. In space, cosmic rays are much much more powerful and catastrophic for cells.Water is actually probably the best shield, because you'll need it to support humans along the way. Gamma still is a risk but I think the concern has mainly been higher speed subatomic particles.Anything with heavy nuclei actually produces significant and also highly damaging secondary radiation when hit by fast moving, heavy nuclei, cosmic rays.

Is it impractical to protect space colonizes with powerful superconducting magnets to deflect harmful radiation?

Wouldn't it still protect humans who visit (or stay on) Mars from the solar radiation?

It's *not possible* to make a shield. The cosmic radiation that reaches that altitude is highly energetic and highly penetrating—enough so to go through 3 meters of water—and would be completely unaffected by lead sheets. Any easily-shielded types of cosmic radiation have already been blocked by the atmosphere.

Might want to include some radiation shielding too