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

Experimental Magic Shield Against Cosmic Rays

[davidwr]

Did anyone else misread the title?

USS Liberty

[Chairboy]

I suggest mounting a standard generator at the core of the prospective space ship and attaching a coffin containing one of our founding fathers to it. The rapid spinning should provide plentiful power for all manner of techno-gadgetry.

Tea or Death?

[MaxwellEdison]

According to TFA this thing uses about as much energy as an electric kettle, Does this mean British astronauts will need to choose between the two? I can see it now, a mustachio'd astronaut (in my mind I imagine him an old RAF captain) hovering over the button and staring at the kettle. Agonizing over the decision before muttering 'To the Queen' and putting the kettle on.

This brings up a larger issue to me...how well does tea steep in zero G, And would there be a difference between an Earl Grey blend or a black tea blend?

Re:Tea or Death?

[Amazing Quantum Man]

Well, obviously for the Earl Grey, you have to say "Hot", as in "Tea, Earl Grey, Hot", or it comes cold.
For the black tea blend, you get a cup of a drink that's almost but not quite entirely unlike tea.

You know what this means...

[jmcwork]

No hope of becoming one of the Fantastic Four. Bummer.

Re:Oblig ...

[CFBMoo1]

From Instructor: Now we're going to practice our impact procedures. Ok everyone lean to the left.

*Whole class but one guy leans to the left*

From Instructor: Good! Now lean to the right.

*Whole class but same one guy leans to the right*

From Instructor: Excellent! Your prepared for when the ship takes damage.

From The One Guy: Uh? Why are we leaning to the left and right like that?

*Instructor hands him a red shirt*

From Instructor: Keep your insurance paid up son.

Re:What if you don't want to deflect?

[superdave80]

You only need to protect the occupants and sensitive equipment. You can just put the ramscoop out ahead of the magnetic protection field.

Now available from Monster

[PhrostyMcByte]

up next: Monster Gold Diamond HDMI cables with Cosmic Ray protection.

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.

Re:Sounds like Highlander

[Anonymous Coward]

There is no sequel. There can be only one.

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?

Re:sure it can melt 500 lbs of copper...

[CorporateSuit]

Anyone know what the standard made-up unit is for energy/time?

Sadly, we don't need a made-up unit for that. The one we have is bad enough:

Horses