William Atkins
Friday, 07 November 2008 21:16
Science -
Space
Page 2 of 3
Earlier mission to the Moon only lasted around eight or so days.
Thus, these NASA Apollo astronauts were able to avoid most solar radiation, especially solar storms that kick up much more of the deadly radiation, due to the shortness of their trips.
However, trips to the planet Mars, for instance, will last about 1.5 years so it is unlikely that these astronauts will be able to avoid such solar storms.
Thus, they will need protection from dangerous solar radiation and space radiation.
The Bamford team stated in their abstract,
“Initial laboratory experiments have been conducted to determine the effectiveness of a magnetized plasma barrier to be able to expel an impacting, low beta, supersonic flowing energetic plasma representing the solar wind.”
Within their lab experiment the researchers used magnets that were being used in experiments to develop fusion power.
They used a small magnetized object to simulate a spacecraft and then placed it within a flow of supercharged particles, what is called supersonic plasma.
Page three concludes the story.
