Experimental Magnetic Shield Against Cosmic Rays

stiller writes "British scientists from the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory have developed an experimental set-up in which a $20 magnet is used to deflect solar-wind-like radiation." Reader Dersaidin points out a slightly more enthusiastic article at Universe Today which emphasizes the possibilities of systems based on this phenomenon to protect astronauts during solar storms, writing "It's a good start. Hopefully, later versions will be able to protect spaceships from energy weapons. A beam from the LHC can melt a 500kg block of copper. Shields, check. Energy weapons, check. Now we just need a viable interstellar drive, and an energy source to power it all."

Comments

Re:A beam from the LHC can melt a 500kg block of c

[daniel_newby]

What needs to be mentioned if such a statement is to be of any use, is how long such melting is expected to take.

According to this CERN page, in the few microseconds that it takes a beam dump to complete. The circulating kinetic energy of the beam is an impressive 350 MJ, equivalent to running a 1000 watt heater for 97 hours.

From page 2 of linked article

[Chris Burke]

What needs to be mentioned if such a statement is to be of any use, is how long such melting is expected to take.

That's a very good point, and to answer the question raised by it I RTFAed so you don't have to! Regarding the "dump block" that they use to absorb the LHC beam before it becomes unstable:

The 10-ton graphite cylinder is encased in 1000 metric tons of steel and concrete. Why not just make the whole thing out of lead or another heavy metal? It turns out that graphite is the only material whose low density and high melting point can resist the ravages of the proton beam. In experiments, researchers found that an 86-microsecond exposure of the beam would bore a hole 40 meters into a block of copper.

Emphasis added. That's one hell of a beam.

BTW, I can't help but recall that the Enterprise D from ST:TNG fires its phasers from a large ring on the saucer section. You can almost imagine the LHC being weaponized and using the same technique that diverts the beam into the dump block to direct it outward towards enemy ships. Though it'd have the rather significant drawback that any damage anywhere on the enormous accelerator ring would take out the weapon. But hey, energy beam!

Re:A beam from the LHC can melt a 500kg block of c

[Red Flayer]

reposted from below (with corrections) in the comments, since my comment belongs here in response to your comment:

FTA, testing showed a 1.5 mm beam "burnt" 40 meters into a block of copper in 86 microseconds.

So... napkin calculation...

.15 cm * 4000 cm == 600 cm^2.

density of copper is about 9 g/cm^2, so 5600 grams of copper melted per .86 microsecond beam burst.

500 lbs =~ 227 kg, so roughly forty 86 microsecond bursts to melt 500 lbs...

So we're talking roughly 3.5 milliseconds to melt 500 pounds of copper.

That's 70 tons of copper melted per second for a single beam. That's a hell of a lot of energy, but I'm not sure what the standard unit is for energy/time (hiroshimas is just energy; libraries of congress and football fields obviously don't apply). Anyone know what the standard made-up unit is for energy/time?