New spaceship force field makes Mars trip possible
November 4, 2008
A handout image received courtesy of the US Geological Survey shows planet Mars. Scientists believe they have found a way of protecting astronauts from a dangerous source of space radiation, thus lifting a major doubt clouding the dream to send humans to Mars.
According to the international space agencies, "Space Weather" is the single greatest obstacle to deep space travel. Radiation from the sun and cosmic rays pose a deadly threat to astronauts in space.
New research, out today, Tuesday, November 4, published in IOP Publishing's Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, shows how knowledge gained from the pursuit of nuclear fusion research may reduce the threat to acceptable levels, making man's first mission to Mars a much greater possibility.
The solar energetic particles, although just part of the 'cosmic rays' spectrum, are of greatest concern because they are the most likely to cause deadly radiation damage to the astronauts.
Large numbers of these energetic particles occur intermittently as "storms" with little warning and are already known to pose the greatest threat to man. Nature helps protect the Earth by having a giant "magnetic bubble" around the planet called the magnetosphere.
The Apollo astronauts of the 1960's and 70's who walked upon the Moon are the only humans to have travelled beyond the Earth's natural "force field" – the Earth's magnetosphere. With typical journeys on the Apollo missions lasting only about 8 days, it was possible to miss an encounter with such a storm; a journey to Mars, however, would take about eighteen months, during which time it is almost certain that astronauts would be enveloped by such a "solar storm".
Space craft visiting the Moon or Mars could maintain some of this protection by taking along their very own portable "mini"-magnetosphere. The idea has been around since the 1960's but it was thought impractical because it was believed that only a very large (more than 100km wide) magnetic bubble could possibly work.
Researchers at the Science and Technology Facilities Council's Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, the Universities of York, Strathclyde and IST Lisbon, have undertaken experiments, using know-how from 50 years of research into nuclear fusion, to show that it is possible for astronauts to shield their spacecrafts with a portable magnetosphere - scattering the highly charged, ionised particles of the solar wind and flares away from their space craft.
Computer simulations done by a team in Lisbon with scientists at Rutherford Appleton last year showed that theoretically a very much smaller "magnetic bubble" of only several hundred meters across would be enough to protect a spacecraft.
Now this has been confirmed in the laboratory in the UK using apparatus originally built to work on fusion. By recreating in miniature a tiny piece of the Solar Wind, scientists working in the laboratory were able to confirm that a small "hole" in the Solar Wind is all that would be needed to keep the astronauts safe on their journey to our nearest neighbours.
Dr. Ruth Bamford, one of the lead researchers at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, said, "These initial experiments have shown promise and that it may be possible to shield astronauts from deadly space weather".
The published version of the paper "The Interactions of a flowing plasma with a dipole magnetic field: measurements and modelling of a diamagnetic cavity relevant to spacecraft protection" (R Bamford et al 2008 Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 50 124025) will be available online from Day, Date Month. It will be available at http://www.iop.org/EJ/abstract/0741-3335/50/12/124025
Source: Institute of Physics
Oct 29, 2009 |
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Welcome to age of Plasma.
I was wondering the same thing. Perhaps the craft and generator could be manufactured in pieces, launched in stages, and assembled in space.
I would imagine so. Could the magnetic field potentially improve an ion drive by accelerating the particles away from the craft and increasing the time the particles momentum is being transferred as it travels through the field?
Also, could solar sails be deployed at the edges of the magnetic fields where the solar wind would be more concentrated?
Has any applicable research into this level of magnetic field exposure ever been conducted?
If you really are interested in MHD plasma drives, I'd recommend buying the ME Article, it's not some theory or a nice hypothesis, it's an engine in Huntsville, Alabama. Very wicked.
They also had tube diodes by then, which do the job very nicely.
We had one of these types for a high school chemistry teacher in the 70s. He didn't believe in antimatter, and refused to teach that section!
Neil pron7@att.net
Funny how Science Teachers like to push there own ideas and not teach Science. My high school science teacher was not much into teaching large chunks of science because he was a Creationist and thought that the world was created about 5,000 years ago or some such rubbish.
Anything that required an older earth was considered a crackpot idea by him and that covers a lot of stuff.
Radioactive decay, evolution, geography, continental drift, archeology, just to name a few.
Also, how is the field to be manipulated to control shape and direction of the shield? It has to rotate so your butt doesn't get radiated on your way out to Mars.
And lastly how will this mess with the instruments on board the craft?
Lots of actual usage details to work out...
Good answer, I think.
Another possibility would be a "shield ship".
Like use some ultra light nano material make a giant umbrella in space which flies behind the crewed vessel, and then flies ahead of them on the return trip.
Man!If you only knew!