In theory, we built a space station orbiting Mercury like the ISS on Earth. Will the magnetosphere of Mercury similarly protect humans from this radiation (despite being close to the sun)?
1 Answer
No. Mercury's magnetosphere has 1% of the strength of that of Earth, and Mercury is about 2.6 times closer to the Sun. Even Mars' magnetic field is stronger despite not coming from Mars' core. So humans can't survive in Mercury's orbit on an ISS-like space station. A better idea would be to land a crew on the night side of Mercury since Mercury's days and nights are very long.
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$\begingroup$ Thank you for your reply. $\endgroup$– NGC224Jul 27, 2020 at 7:37
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1$\begingroup$ Alternatively, they could be in one of Mercury's shadowed craters, which also have the advantage of abundant ice: nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/moon-mercury-ice. $\endgroup$– PittoJul 27, 2020 at 22:32