Dr. Tony Phillips, author of SpaceWather.com, brought our attention to a very interesting research article published recently in AGU's journal "Space Weather". The article is titled "Does the worsening galactic cosmic radiation environment observed by CRaTER preclude future manned deep space exploration?" and its significance comes into play after NASA's successful test flight of Orion spacecraft on December 5 which heralds a renewed capability to send astronauts into deep space.
In the abstract of the paper authors remind that the Sun and its solar wind are currently exhibiting extremely low densities and magnetic field strengths, representing states that have never been observed during the space age.
"The highly abnormal solar activity between cycles 23 and 24 has caused the longest solar minimum in over 80 years and continues into the unusually small solar maximum of cycle 24. As a result of the remarkably weak solar activity, we have also observed the highest fluxes of galactic cosmic rays in the space age and relatively small solar energetic particle events.
