Intense magnetic fields could protect astronauts from solar flares
ScienceNow: Any fan of Star Trek knows the drill: An enemy ship attacks, the red alert blares, and the shields go up. Back in the real world, a team of physicists has now shown that such deflector shields are possible and could help protect astronauts from potentially lethal radiation as they travel to the moon, Mars, or beyond.
Comments
As a spacehead who was in elementary school during the Apollo Program Lunar Missions, I greatly applaud this development.
The need for shielding for long duration manned space missions is quite evident, especially when considering destinations beyond Mars.
With magnetic shielding technology, perhaps there is essentially no limit on how far humans can travel given enough time.
The magnetic shielding could be provided by relatively weak permanent magnets having a large diameter or width if the spaceship was large enough.
Posted by: James M. Essig | November 5, 2008 6:41 PM