When Joe Rothenberg was speaking at the American Asronautical Society meeting it absolutely stunned me when he said that radiation was turning out to be a show stopper and started talking about wokring with Brookhaven to try a find a way of magnetic containment.

I didn't have the tape running as I had expected a usual rah-rah type of speech... so I didn't get his comments in full, and the radiation problem description came as a real surprise... Rothenberg gave a real good talk on the real problems of manned Mars flight...

When I brought it up the first time here, everyone dismissed it, and I got the usual abuse...

I myself had doubts, and when I ran into Rothenberg again I asked him about it, and mentioned that earlier they had thought the water or fuel tanks could work as shielding... he said that was possible, but wasn't really enthusiastic...

When the Viking symposium came up, I left the tape running... What he said is what I wrote...

There's new data on radiation levels and types floating into the manned spaceflight community...
I don't know if it's coming from Galileo, Cassini, or SOHO...

My plate is full with other items, so its up to you...

Good luck -
EP