Raise Shields, Captain!

[newtons_laws]

<p>Astronauts on long duration voyages, eg to Mars, are exposed to&nbsp;the potentially harmful radiation effects of charged particles in the solar wind and from solar flares.&nbsp;Ways to combat this using a magnetic shield are being investigated by researchers at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, according to this BBC article:</p><p>&nbsp;http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7706844.stm</p><p>Also a more "populist" <img src="http://sitelife.space.com/ver1.0/content/scripts/tinymce/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-smile.gif" border="0" alt="Smile" title="Smile" />&nbsp;newspaper article here:</p><p>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/earth/2008/11/04/scimars104.xml</p><p>&nbsp;Although charged particles represent the major radiation hazard, and may well be able to be diverted by such protective magnetic shields, the shields will&nbsp;of course have no effect on ionising electromagnetic radiation ie gamma rays, for which the only protection is to use absorbing materials.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[newtons_laws]

<p>Link to the published research&nbsp;paper:</p><p>http://www.iop.org/EJ/abstract/0741-3335/50/12/124025</p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[nimbus]

10 or 15 years away? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[SpaceKiwi]

<p>Greetings, <font color="#000000">newtons_laws, and a belated welcome to Community from me!&nbsp; Love the nifty title for your thread but you've unfortunately been beaten to the punch by the another Poster, so I've moved this over and will now close it as a duplicate.&nbsp; I'm sure it will sit here prominantly for a few days before it falls from the first page, and you're welcome to throw your links into the other thread of course.</font></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>SK</p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em><font size="2" color="#ff0000">Who is this superhero?  Henry, the mild-mannered janitor ... could be!</font></em></p><p><em><font size="2">-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</font></em></p><p><font size="5">Bring Back The Black!</font></p> </div>