Those venturing into space face a very serious occupational hazard -- cancer. The disease can be caused by radiation from the cosmic rays and solar flares astronauts encounter when they travel beyond the Earth's protective magnetic layer or magnetosphere.British scientists are working on rectifying this problem by creating a Star Trek-style deflector shield to protect astronauts from radiation.
Think about this:
Scientists wish to mimic the magnetic field that protects the Earth with shields deployed around spacecraft and on the surfaces of planets to deflect harmful energetic particles.
Details, presented at the Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting in Preston, UK, include the following:
- The idea has been linked to the deflector shields that protect the USS Enterprise and other spacecraft on Star Trek. The shields, like on the TV show, could be switched on and off.
- In order to make the shield, scientists must generate a magnetic field and then fill it with ionized gas, or plasma. As energetic particles interact with the plasma, energy is sapped away from them, causing them to slow down.
- Protective shelters would not work on long-duration space journeys due to the drip of energized particles, thought to be as harmful as large solar storms.
A team from Rutherford-Appleton plans to build an artificial magnetosphere in the laboratory. They would eventually like to fly a test satellite which would test the technology in space.
