Discussion: Electric Shield for Astronauts on ...

[Fraser]

SUMMARY: Now that NASA has committed itself to returning humans to the Moon, they're looking to overcome one of the major risks to anyone staying in space for a lengthy amount of time: radiation. In deep space, and on the Moon, astronauts would be bombarded by radiation from the Sun, and cosmic rays from space. NASA is considering an electromagnetic shield of highly charged inflatable spheres. These could be erected above a potential lunar base to attract the radiation and channel it safely away.

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[madman]

if they get unintended current flow when using the spheres...then maybe some magnetic poles could be set up at either end of the grid...to direct the positive and negative ions?

also, couldn't those currents be added to the powering of the system?

[antoniseb]

Originally posted by madman@Jun 27 2005, 08:38 PM
couldn't those currents be added to the powering of the system?

Maybe, how many Watts do you figure could be captured that way?
How much would it cost to capture those Watts?
What millenium would be the break-even point?

[sam_lelime]

Hmm Electro maganetic bubble to sheild from radiation.. brilliant idea...
saves in the use of lots of lead sheilding..
as for transforming it into an energy source they are better using modified solar panels that converts Radiation into energy they can find locations on the moon where sunlight is almost constant and set up the power plant.

[Greg]

Sounds good in theory. Personally I like the idea of constructing a habitat with thick enough walls to block incoming radiation. I like the idea of portable systems like this for outside work. I guess alcohol should be banned from the moon, or at least drunk driving. Running into one of these sphere stands with a moon buggy would give new meaning to the term "spectacular accident."
I doubt that you would get enough current out of the solar wind to run a lightbulb, but I guess you won't know until you try. Solar panels would be alot more useful as a power source.

[madman]

the current/s would be protons and electrons...they could possibly be collected by adding lightning rods? to the system.

it might not be much power..but it would help to keep the charge "topped up" on the shield.

(i wasn't considering the above setup as a source of base power...and agree that solar panels would be better for that.)

was just contemplating the aforementioned "unintended currents"..and how to deal with them.

[suitti]

Instead of concrete, just bring bags and fill them with regolith. Add thickness with more bags.

Ideally, I'd like to see robots (perhaps teleoperated) build the habitats in advance. Apollow 12 showed we can land near where we want to. I'd like to see the robots set up power, and such in advance too.

[antoniseb]

Originally posted by suitti@Jun 29 2005, 08:36 PM
Instead of concrete, just bring bags and fill them with regolith

You don't even need the bags. Get machines to take rocks and convert them into Oxygen and Metal (mostly Aluminum) and Silicon. Build your structure out of Aluminum, and bury it under as much loose dust as you need.

[tater1337]

Originally posted by antoniseb+Jun 29 2005, 08:52 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (antoniseb @ Jun 29 2005, 08:52 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-suitti@Jun 29 2005, 08:36 PM
Instead of concrete, just bring bags and fill them with regolith

You don&#39;t even need the bags. Get machines to take rocks and convert them into Oxygen and Metal (mostly Aluminum) and Silicon. Build your structure out of Aluminum, and bury it under as much loose dust as you need. [/b][/quote]
why waste time and money with robots extracting the metals? grab a bunch of hefty bags and fill them with the dust you mention.

[tater1337]

Originally posted by Greg@Jun 28 2005, 04:26 AM
Sounds good in theory. Personally I like the idea of constructing a habitat with thick enough walls to block incoming radiation. I like the idea of portable systems like this for outside work.

I agree, there is plenty of dirt up there. get a robot and give em a shovel&#33;

I guess alcohol should be banned from the moon, or at least drunk driving. Running into one of these sphere stands with a moon buggy would give new meaning to the term "spectacular accident."

I think alcohol should be allowed, and I cant see any way to avoid bootleg stils regardless. once they have a greenhouse for food and/or oxygen, any engineer worth shipping up there will have a still ready to go in 5 minutes.

they could always adopt the aviators rule "8 hours from bottle to throttle". not like you see a lot of drunk flying.

I doubt that you would get enough current out of the solar wind to run a lightbulb, but I guess you won&#39;t know until you try. Solar panels would be alot more useful as a power source.

i wonder if fresnel solar furnaces would be more efficient. no atmosphere and such....

[StarQuestor]

I think for something like this we might defer to the Military for advice....I can&#39;t for a minute believe that THEY don&#39;t have some kind of "Force Field" prototype at the very least or one in the works even if its only on paper. Ever since I was a kid it had been my dream of participating in the development of defensive shields for cities and armament.

Can someone please tell me, (outside the need for fusion generators to produce the power needed...if indeed that WOULD be needed), why something like this couldn&#39;t be done? We already have the ability to generate any amount of energy needed for most purposes, experimental or otherwise...why not a Star Wars/Star Trek type of energy shield?

I don&#39;t think I have my head in the clouds when it comes to this subject. I realize that just because we can "think of or imagine" something, that it doesn&#39;t mean it can actually become a physical reality regardless of the level of technology. I can "imagine" flapping my arms fast enough to take off and fly but it doesn&#39;t mean I actually can or ever would be able to fly no matter how fast I flap...LOL.

My point is, I think it may be possible to effectively shield our astronauts from radiation with energy shields and that there may already be something previously develped to do this. I know that the government has high energy physics projects of one kind or another always in the works at any given time. In this day and age with the new blood involved with them, I am sure they have encouraged creativity and inventiveness in their scientists to come up with powerful and practical ways to protect their troops and equipment. I can only imagine what they have secretly have come up with at this point, but haven&#39;t deemed it necessary to show it or equip their troops and ships with these "surprises".

[Red Dwarf]

To me, it seems that the simplest way to build a colony on the Moon would be to built it underground, at least the living quarters, along with a garage for all of the vehicles used there. A minimum of time would be spent outdoors, and none at all during solar flares. Because the gravity on the Moon is only 1/6 what it is here on Earth, the colonists could use lead suits there when they are outdoors that would be much too heavy here.

[Planetwatcher]

Why not just build very large solar panels above the bases. You then have a solar power plant, and a radiation shield in one device.

[Nick4]

This sounds like it could work, another good reason for going back to the moon and seting up facilitys i think will be good practice for doing the same with mars in the future.