Mars trip a step closer as nuclear research inspires “space-shield”

Researchers have used nuclear fusion research overcome the obstacles preventing astronauts venturing to Mars by designing a “space-shield”.

On Earth we are protected by radiation from the sun and cosmic rays by the magnetosphere but when outside this protective bubble astronauts take the full damage of the deadly rays.

Astronauts are in most danger from solar storms when the sun emits a high concentration of solar energetic particles. Moon walkers in the 60’s and 70’s were at risk but as the missions were typically only a week long so the danger of encountering a storm was minimal. A mission to Mars would take a year and a half and this almost guarantees a spacecraft an encounter with a solar storm.

Researchers at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Universities of York, Strathclyde and IST Lisbon have shown that nuclear fusion know-how could help design a “space-shield”, like a portable magnetosphere, which would deflect the dangerous particles away from a spacecraft. Computer simulations from Lisbon predicted that the shield as small as a few hundred metres in diameter could protect a spacecraft. Researchers based in the UK have proved this by experiment using apparatus originally built to work on fusion at the Rutherford Appleton.

Dr Ruth Bamford, one of the lead researchers at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, said, “These initial experiments have shown promise and that it may be possible to shield astronauts from deadly space weather.”