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maybe magnets or a thick lead layer. No and no. Permanent magnets that would be strong enough to be effective would be too heavy. The power system to support e

maybe magnets or a thick lead layer. No and no. Permanent magnets that would be strong enough to be effective would be too heavy. The power system to support effective electromagnets would be too heavy. It goes without saying that a thick lead layer would be too heavy. One of the actual schemes discussed would be to have a solar flare emergency shelter that the astronauts could go to in case of a solar flare. This would use water as the shielding material, which would save weight, as water would have to be brought along in any case.

shrimp_emoji 9y ago
>Permanent magnets that would be strong enough to be effective would be too heavy. Heavy to shove out to sea from shore, but not if you've got a dock! (Read: build the craft already in space. And then have some mean engines.) But this is all untenable; we need to become robots and cut out the malarkey.
- stcredzero 9y ago
  Heavy to shove out to sea from shore, but not if you've got a dock! So you're proposing something like Aldrin's cycler craft. Given our experience on Mir and the ISS, we are going to have to get a whole lot better at environmental engineering to be able to do that for human passengers. I've read that the inside of the ISS smells like some kind of porta potty. we need to become robots and cut out the malarkey. I hope we will still have "human fundamentalists." (To use Charles Stross' term)
  - logfromblammo 9y ago
    Electromechanical robotics is but an intermediate step. I can't wait to be an engineered lichen, with self-repair systems lifted from Deinococcus radiodurans.
    - perl4ever 9y ago
      I'm inclined to think that it's just too soon to go into space. It will truly become practical when biotech allows us to evolve into completely different forms that are more durable.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
elihu 9y ago
For protecting from the sun, would it be sufficient to have a separate craft on a parallel trajectory some distance away (let's say a couple miles) with a magnet or weak shield that deflects radiation by a small angle so that it misses the main ship?
- r00fus 9y ago
  A stellar wind umbrella? I wonder how that'd impact flight trajectory calculations.
narag 9y ago
Permanent magnets that would be strong enough to be effective would be too heavy. Too heavy for what? Anyway, you took the magnets or lead suggestions too literally. They were in the broad direction of using a material isolation or some kind of electromagnetic shield. Why permanent magnets BTW?
- stcredzero 9y ago
  Because you only said "magnets" so I debunked your proposal by subsets of the set "magnets" -- first tackling the permanent kind, then electromagnets. in the broad direction of using a material isolation or some kind of electromagnetic shield. Water would work as a shielding material. 6' of lunar or martian regolith would work as well. As for "some kind of electromagnetic shield" note that a huge electric charge would be relatively easy to establish, which would repel particles of like charge. However, this would cause particles of the opposite electric charge to rush towards what you're trying to shield, so that particle flow would have to be managed with a magnetic field. This has been discussed and researched since at least the 60's, actually. Managing such particle flows would involve a whole lot of engineering research and not an insignificant amount of power.
  - narag 9y ago
    The point I'm trying to make, and it seems I'm failing miserably, is that whatever it needs to be done will be done. Unless astronauts' life is considered expendable. A lot of engineering research? not an insignificant amount of power? too heavy? Do "cyclers" need realignement? Are they slow? So what? Should we pack dozens of astronauts and hope at least a handful survive? That's the least realistic option IMO.

shrimp_emoji 9y ago

>Permanent magnets that would be strong enough to be effective would be too heavy. Heavy to shove out to sea from shore, but not if you've got a dock! (Read: build the craft already in space. And then have some mean engines.) But this is all untenable; we need to become robots and cut out the malarkey.

stcredzero 9y ago
Heavy to shove out to sea from shore, but not if you've got a dock! So you're proposing something like Aldrin's cycler craft. Given our experience on Mir and the ISS, we are going to have to get a whole lot better at environmental engineering to be able to do that for human passengers. I've read that the inside of the ISS smells like some kind of porta potty. we need to become robots and cut out the malarkey. I hope we will still have "human fundamentalists." (To use Charles Stross' term)
- logfromblammo 9y ago
  Electromechanical robotics is but an intermediate step. I can't wait to be an engineered lichen, with self-repair systems lifted from Deinococcus radiodurans.
  - perl4ever 9y ago
    I'm inclined to think that it's just too soon to go into space. It will truly become practical when biotech allows us to evolve into completely different forms that are more durable.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

elihu 9y ago

For protecting from the sun, would it be sufficient to have a separate craft on a parallel trajectory some distance away (let's say a couple miles) with a magnet or weak shield that deflects radiation by a small angle so that it misses the main ship?

r00fus 9y ago
A stellar wind umbrella? I wonder how that'd impact flight trajectory calculations.

narag 9y ago

Permanent magnets that would be strong enough to be effective would be too heavy. Too heavy for what? Anyway, you took the magnets or lead suggestions too literally. They were in the broad direction of using a material isolation or some kind of electromagnetic shield. Why permanent magnets BTW?

stcredzero 9y ago
Because you only said "magnets" so I debunked your proposal by subsets of the set "magnets" -- first tackling the permanent kind, then electromagnets. in the broad direction of using a material isolation or some kind of electromagnetic shield. Water would work as a shielding material. 6' of lunar or martian regolith would work as well. As for "some kind of electromagnetic shield" note that a huge electric charge would be relatively easy to establish, which would repel particles of like charge. However, this would cause particles of the opposite electric charge to rush towards what you're trying to shield, so that particle flow would have to be managed with a magnetic field. This has been discussed and researched since at least the 60's, actually. Managing such particle flows would involve a whole lot of engineering research and not an insignificant amount of power.
- narag 9y ago
  The point I'm trying to make, and it seems I'm failing miserably, is that whatever it needs to be done will be done. Unless astronauts' life is considered expendable. A lot of engineering research? not an insignificant amount of power? too heavy? Do "cyclers" need realignement? Are they slow? So what? Should we pack dozens of astronauts and hope at least a handful survive? That's the least realistic option IMO.