At the April 13th meeting of the American Physical Society, students from Drake University in Iowa presented their MISSFIT (Magneto-Ionization Spacecraft Shield for Interplanetary Travel) design that uses superconducting magnets to generate a magnetic shield protecting spacecraft against cosmic radiation while in transit.
The design incorporates both passive and active magnetic shielding similar to the Earth's ionosphere.
With help from a small NASA grant through the Iowa Space Grant Consortium, experiments are already underway on the passive shielding, which could protect astronauts from high-energy gamma-rays that a magnetic shield can’t stop. The hope, said Lorien MacEnulty, a junior at Drake and a member of the team, is to solve a key safety problem that's delayed an eventual NASA mission to Mars: long-term exposure to interplanetary radiation.
Right now, the students are experimenting with a number of radiation-blocking fabrics that might be light enough to mount on a spacecraft.
"We expose [the fabrics] to radiation," MacEnulty told Live Science. "Then we count how many particles make it through the layers of fabric."
The active shielding on the other hand assumes that any future spacecraft would be 'roughly cylindrical' with room at either end for a superconducting magnet ring powered by nuclear reactors.
Those magnets wouldn't divert gamma-rays. But they would cause charged alpha particles — another component of cosmic rays that could strike the spacecraft and emit X-rays — to move toward the ends of the spacecraft, which would be capped by two bubbles of material filled with a mixture of ionized gas that mimics Earth's ionosphere.
As the alpha particles zoom through this ionized gas, they would lose energy in a process similar to the one that produces auroras in the ionosphere near Earth's own North and South Poles.
Many questions remain unanswered in the design and the students are already showing their maturity as researchers by planning out what will require investigation and study over the next several years.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 23 2019, @09:30PM (7 children)
To protect the astronauts from space radiation, they are going to surround them with nuclear radiation. Why don't these idiot students' professors guide them to a more practical areas of research like gender studies.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday April 23 2019, @10:02PM (3 children)
They aren't surrounding themselves in Nuclear Radiation. They are using magnets to create a magnetic shield that protects them from radiation. The magnets are powered by a nuclear reactor. The nuclear reactor would have it's own shielding/lining that would be designed not to kill the crew.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 23 2019, @10:03PM (1 child)
Because tons of lead shielding make for more efficient lift-off...
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Tuesday April 23 2019, @10:32PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilopower [wikipedia.org]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 24 2019, @12:46PM
let me complete that:
And the nuclear reactor do no need to be close to the people, can be put far away enough and have only radiation shield in the side that is facing the astronauts. all other sides can have almost zero shield
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 23 2019, @10:29PM
I just assumed you are trolling, but if you're serious...?
lol
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 23 2019, @11:36PM (1 child)
Sure.
To me the major flaw in the design is that the space craft assumes a centralized living area. This eliminates the ability to create a gravity environment by locating the living area on the outside of a rotating cylinder. I guess the trade off is live in zero g for several months or get exposed to more radiation. For a one way trip, perhaps neither matter. But for anyone wanting to come back, both are issues that need solutions.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday April 24 2019, @10:33AM
They can either shield a whole rotating cylinder, shield part of it, or come up with a different way which centralizes the living quarters (like a tether system with a counterweight) for providing the rotation for artificial gravity. It was always known that this was going to be a problem. Any other radiation shielding system has the same issues with a trade off between the size of the living area and the amount of shielding the living area will need.