Editing Space settlement (section)

===Protection from radiation===
If a space settlement is located at [[Lagrangian point#L4 and L5|L4 or&nbsp;L5]], then its orbit will take it outside of the protection of the Earth's [[magnetosphere]] for approximately two-thirds of the time (as happens with the Moon), putting residents at risk of [[Proton#Human exposure|proton exposure]] from the [[solar wind]] (see ''[[Health threat from cosmic rays]]'').

Protection can be attained through passive or active shielding.<ref name="h447">{{cite web | title=Radiation Shielding Techniques for Human Spaceflight | website=Professor Robert B. Laughlin, Department of Physics, Stanford University | date=2015-07-17 | url=http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2015/ph241/clark1/ | ref={{sfnref | Professor Robert B. Laughlin, Department of Physics, Stanford University | 2015}} | access-date=2024-08-08}}</ref> Passive shielding through the use of materials has been the method to shield current spacecrafts.

Water walls or ice walls can provide protection from solar and cosmic radiation, as 7 cm of water depth blocks approximately half of incident radiation.<ref>{{cite report|title=Water Walls Architecture: Massively Redundant andn Highly Reliable Life Support for Long Duration Exploration Missions|url=https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20190001191/downloads/20190001191.pdf|access-date=November 13, 2022|publisher=NASA}}</ref> Alternatively, rock could be used as shielding; 4 metric tons per square meter of surface area could reduce radiation dosage to several mSv or less annually, below the rate of some populated [[background radiation|high natural background areas]] on Earth.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100531210412/http://settlement.arc.nasa.gov/75SummerStudy/5appendE.html "Mass Shielding"], Appendix E, ''Space Settlements: A Design Study''. NASA (SP-413), 1975.</ref>

Alternative concepts based on active shielding are untested yet and more complex than such passive mass shielding, but usage of magnetic and/or electric fields, like through spacecraft encapsulating wires,<ref name="z986">{{cite web | last=Williams | first=Matt | title=Plans for a modular Martian base that would provide its own radiation shielding | website=Phys.org | date=2018-10-17 | url=https://phys.org/news/2018-10-modular-martian-base-shielding.html | access-date=2024-08-08}}</ref> to deflect particles could potentially greatly reduce mass requirements.<ref name = spacecraftshielding>{{cite web | url= http://engineering.dartmouth.edu/~simon_g_shepherd/research/Shielding/ | title= Spacecraft Shielding | author= Shepherd, Simon George | website= dartmouth.edu | publisher= Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College | access-date= 3 May 2011}}</ref>