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The belts are filled with captured charged particles which deflect cosmic rays and protect the earth from them. If you blow them away, those rays will get throu

The belts are filled with captured charged particles which deflect cosmic rays and protect the earth from them. If you blow them away, those rays will get through. One of the Project Orion proposals outlined in the linked wiki is about how to mitigate the impact somewhat by launching from unpopulated areas so that humans are not affected by the resulting radiation that gets through the hole you punch in the earth's protective charged particle shield.

politician 4y ago
I think you've misunderstood what the Van Allen radiation belts are. Here's a direct quote from the first paragraph on Wikipedia. > A Van Allen radiation belt is a zone of energetic charged particles, most of which originate from the solar wind, that are captured by and held around a planet by that planet's magnetosphere. Earth has two such belts, and sometimes others may be temporarily created. The belts are named after James Van Allen, who is credited with their discovery.[1] Earth's two main belts extend from an altitude of about 640 to 58,000 km (400 to 36,040 mi)[2] above the surface, in which region radiation levels vary. Most of the particles that form the belts are thought to come from solar wind and other particles by cosmic rays.[3] By trapping the solar wind, the magnetic field deflects those energetic particles and protects the atmosphere from destruction. To recap: - The radiation (aka charged particles, aka cosmic rays) is captured by the Earth's magnetosphere. - The particles are deflected and steered around/away from the planet. - You can't blow up a magnetic field lines with a bomb since they originate from within the planet's core. - You can change the velocity of the charged particles themselves by detonating a nuclear device nearby, but... - Such a device wouldn't affect more than a small number of particles (many would be in Earth's shadow), and would only affect them with pressure from the X-rays and other light released from the explosion because there's no air in space that can carry a pressure wave. - The Orion proposals are talking about mitigating the damage from detonating nukes in atmosphere, specifically fallout. I think that there's no chance we'd ever take the risk of launching from Earth into orbit using an Orion drive, the fallout cannot be contained. However, I do think that we should explore using an Orion drive in the area beyond Earth orbit. There are proposals to hang a tether between the belts and use the charge gradient along the tether to generate electricity -- using the belts as a giant battery. Hoyt, Robert P., and Bryan M. Minor. "Remediation of radiation belts using electrostatic tether structures." 2005 IEEE Aerospace Conference. IEEE, (2005). http://web.archive.org/web/20110517200032/http://www.tethers.com/papers/ES_Remediation_IEEE_Paper.pdf http://web.archive.org/web/20110517200032/http://www.tethers...
- cjtrowbridge 4y ago
  Fallout, and the particles captured in the belts are essentially the same thing from different sources. Yea it's not "blowing up" the field, it's dispersing the captured particles. The earth's magnetic field is not evenly, statically distributed. The lines of force could be seen as moving, they are not like in a fixed place. Captured particles set up an additional field which deflects more particles from coming through. Dispersing them means new particles can come through. For example, this deflection effect is thinner at the poles which is why more particles come through there, leading the the northern and southern lights. That's why during periods of high solar wind intensity such as solar storms, the lights sometimes occupy a much larger part of the sky and move closer to the equator. If you read the whole wiki page, there is a more detailed explanation including simulations showing how it works. From the first paragraph, "Most of the particles that form the belts are thought to come from solar wind and other particles by cosmic rays. By trapping the solar wind, the magnetic field deflects those energetic particles and protects the atmosphere from destruction."

politician 4y ago

I think you've misunderstood what the Van Allen radiation belts are. Here's a direct quote from the first paragraph on Wikipedia. > A Van Allen radiation belt is a zone of energetic charged particles, most of which originate from the solar wind, that are captured by and held around a planet by that planet's magnetosphere. Earth has two such belts, and sometimes others may be temporarily created. The belts are named after James Van Allen, who is credited with their discovery.[1] Earth's two main belts extend from an altitude of about 640 to 58,000 km (400 to 36,040 mi)[2] above the surface, in which region radiation levels vary. Most of the particles that form the belts are thought to come from solar wind and other particles by cosmic rays.[3] By trapping the solar wind, the magnetic field deflects those energetic particles and protects the atmosphere from destruction. To recap: - The radiation (aka charged particles, aka cosmic rays) is captured by the Earth's magnetosphere. - The particles are deflected and steered around/away from the planet. - You can't blow up a magnetic field lines with a bomb since they originate from within the planet's core. - You can change the velocity of the charged particles themselves by detonating a nuclear device nearby, but... - Such a device wouldn't affect more than a small number of particles (many would be in Earth's shadow), and would only affect them with pressure from the X-rays and other light released from the explosion because there's no air in space that can carry a pressure wave. - The Orion proposals are talking about mitigating the damage from detonating nukes in atmosphere, specifically fallout. I think that there's no chance we'd ever take the risk of launching from Earth into orbit using an Orion drive, the fallout cannot be contained. However, I do think that we should explore using an Orion drive in the area beyond Earth orbit. There are proposals to hang a tether between the belts and use the charge gradient along the tether to generate electricity -- using the belts as a giant battery. Hoyt, Robert P., and Bryan M. Minor. "Remediation of radiation belts using electrostatic tether structures." 2005 IEEE Aerospace Conference. IEEE, (2005). http://web.archive.org/web/20110517200032/http://www.tethers.com/papers/ES_Remediation_IEEE_Paper.pdf http://web.archive.org/web/20110517200032/http://www.tethers...

cjtrowbridge 4y ago
Fallout, and the particles captured in the belts are essentially the same thing from different sources. Yea it's not "blowing up" the field, it's dispersing the captured particles. The earth's magnetic field is not evenly, statically distributed. The lines of force could be seen as moving, they are not like in a fixed place. Captured particles set up an additional field which deflects more particles from coming through. Dispersing them means new particles can come through. For example, this deflection effect is thinner at the poles which is why more particles come through there, leading the the northern and southern lights. That's why during periods of high solar wind intensity such as solar storms, the lights sometimes occupy a much larger part of the sky and move closer to the equator. If you read the whole wiki page, there is a more detailed explanation including simulations showing how it works. From the first paragraph, "Most of the particles that form the belts are thought to come from solar wind and other particles by cosmic rays. By trapping the solar wind, the magnetic field deflects those energetic particles and protects the atmosphere from destruction."