The weather on Mars is not a welcoming factor for future expeditions. Yes, it's a harsh, chilly, foreboding planet. The place is no paradise. To make matters worse on Mars, astronauts will be more exposed to space radiation than stay-at-home Earthlings. Why so?
Mars lacks a protective magnetosphere and is cocooned in thin air that is roughly one-percent of the thickness of Earth's atmosphere. This ambiance of nastiness lets in high-energy radiation, such as protons, ions, neutrons and gamma rays. The sun does its part by churning out intense bursts of radiation called solar energetic particles, or SEPs.
