Step 1 - in Designing Spaceship Reflector Shields

According to the British science firm Appleton Lab, a tiny magnet can be used to protect a spaceship from cosmic rays that the sun produces:

Because the solar wind is a plasma made up of charged particles, it too carries a magnetic field. When the solar wind's field meets the rocks' mini-magnetosphere, the two fields clash, exerting a force on each other. Something has to give. Because the solar wind's field is created by free-moving particles, it is the one that yields, altering its orientation to minimise conflict with the mini-magnetosphere's field.

Some parts of the solar wind shift more easily than others. The positively charged protons have nearly 2000 times the mass of the negatively charged electrons, so the latter are much more easily deflected. The electrons stay at the surface of the magnetic bubble, while the positive charges penetrate further in.

This separation of positive and negative charges generates intense electric fields up to a million times stronger than the magnetic fields that created them. Subsequent solar wind particles hit these electric fields and are strongly deflected. The result is a shielding effect far more powerful than the magnetic field alone might be expected to provide.

The firm is currently working with NASA to test their theory.


Source: [Gizmodo]