>>> Since you seem to want to be serious about this. I was
 >>> thinking that Gamma particles in space could be hitting the
 >>> CPU and too thin/small a trace within the PNP of the chip
 >>> itself could be literally disconnected while the larger
 >>> trace used on older designs could withstand multiple
 >>> strikes? 
 
 ->>  Alpha and Beta radiation are particles. 
 
 ->> Gamma radiation is rays, like x-rays. 
 
 TW> And if their field is strong enough they will do a number
 TW> of solid state devices too. 

 CA> As I've said in another message I have been aware of this for
 CA> over 40 years now which makes all the talk of extended year+
 CA> trips to Mars right now seem like so much sci-fi talk. All of
 CA> the computerized equipment would fail and possibly every living
 CA> thing in the 'spaceship' would be long since dead from gamma
 CA> radiation exposure. :-\ 
 
	There's not much gamma radiation from the sun, though 
solar flares can boost X-ray radiation.  Satellites have operated
in orbit much longer than the transit time between a Mars-Earth
expedition would take, and performed longer than design specifications,
so I'm rather astonished at your statement that "the computerized
equipment would fail."  Have you never heard of Galileo, Voyager,
Pioneer, etc. probes?



--- Blue Wave/DOS v2.30 [NR]