Henry Imler April 18th, 2007

… buy using a plasma cloud trapped by a magnetic field.

It has been known for a while that there are serious dangers posed
by intra-solar radiation for any kind of human traveling outside the
earth’s magnetosphere. They even did a cover article on the topic at Discover magazine.

There might be a way around the problem (update - 2nd team).

Slough says the problem could be solved with just a few
grams of hydrogen in the form of a plasma surrounding the spacecraft.
NASA’s Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) recently awarded Slough’s
team $75,000 to explore the feasibility of the idea.

The details still need to be worked out, but the basic approach is
clear. A high voltage device on the spacecraft would tear the hydrogen
into its constituent protons and electrons. This plasma would then be
spewed out into space, creating a cloud around the spacecraft.

There would need to be a wire mesh outside the spacecraft and
enclosing the plasma cloud. Electricity supplied to the mesh would keep
an electrical current running in the plasma cloud and help confined it
near the spacecraft.

The plasma’s magnetic field would be a powerful deflector of cosmic
rays, equivalent to aluminium shielding several inches thick, Slough
says.

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