The Genius Behind The First Active Deflector Shield

To travel to distant planets we need a way to survive the radiation levels of deep-space. Active shielding has been explored since the 1960's but a breakthrough approach might finally make deflection shielding viable.
0:00 The 1972 Solar Radiation Event
1:27 Radiation in Deep-Space
5:05 The Insane Challenge of Active Shielding
12:30 The First Real Deflector Shield
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[@DrBenMiles]

I planned the whole time to use a clip from Dune of the Holtzmans shields. 100% the best visual of an energy shield - other than I guess being able to make a real one...

[@omnijack]

I hope you mean the version of Dune with Patrick Stewart and Sting.

[@DrBenMiles]

@@omnijack 100%

[@petergerdes1094]

@@omnijackYou mean the janky square shit? Interesting movie, but that shield vfx was janky af.

[@touchheartyoga]

I think the approach is a little backwards the shield needs to simply draw the particles in a stream past the vehicle

[@touchheartyoga]

So wasn't there some development on a skin for the vehicle that produces its own electricity from the movement of the craft? I could be mixed up here. But either way, I'm confident that the same technology will open the door to partial capture for electrical generation.

[@hervigdewilde3599]

I'm not sure it'd stop a photon torpedo, but it's a step in the right direction... 😄

[@FutureAIDev2015]

A mirror could stop a photon torpedo. A proton torpedo would be the big challenge 😂

[@hervigdewilde3599]

@@FutureAIDev2015 I see which side you'll be on in the coming Trek Wars... 🤪

[@FutureAIDev2015]

@@hervigdewilde3599 unfortunately, r/whoosh... Huh?

[@hervigdewilde3599]

@@FutureAIDev2015 Proton torpedoes are Star Wars, whereas photon torpedoes are Star Trek. 🤣

[@FutureAIDev2015]

@@hervigdewilde3599 Ahhh... A photon torpedo would technically just be a laser though wouldn't it

[@dannydetonator]

-What were you working on in NASA, dad? _A CREW-HAT. But they rejected the design.._ -How hard can it be to design a new "NASA" cap.. Why did they reject it? _It turned out too big and heavy.._ -How heavy? _25'000Kg, but still a huge improvement.._

[@mikebar42]

Keep your chin up dad, you'll get it one day.

[@ChinchillaBONK]

Star Wars and Star Trek fans rejoice

[@hamasmillitant1]

also useful in the coming nuclear war to protect those that can afford it :P

[@spiderlord4181]

​@@hamasmillitant1dude, this technology with do absolutely nothing to a nuclear detonation. This is meant to block stray particles traveling through space, not a small STAR at practically point blank range. Stop being such a doomer and lighten up, this technology is a good think that could help us explore and even make new homes in the future.

[@evobsm2328]

​@@hamasmillitant1i dont think you will be able to protect anything then

[@coolcrazyguyer]

YESSIR

[@theofungi6562]

Still waiting for a hoverboard and self drying clothes.

[@Purpleturtlehurtler]

A science channel that isn't clickbait? Subscribed.

[@Ri-ver]

At 4:21 you said 99.99 times the speed of light instead of 99.99 percent the speed of light and I was like hold up 😂 The graphic has the % though so it's ok

[@jerrycornelius7488]

Listening in the kitchen, spilt my tea, not OK! 😅

[@DrBenMiles]

I'm a dummy. Good catch 👍

[@Garrett0329]

Dude….the world is still spinning. You got his point so well you called him out for it? Pity

[@Ri-ver]

@@Garrett0329 I don't imagine he interpreted it as 'calling out' so much as some good natured teasing from someone who clearly enjoyed his content. I have another account where I publish educational content on computational EM. I wouldn't be bothered at all by a comment like the one I made

[@zanarkandmusic]

Yeah, I was wondering if anyone else was going to say something 👍

[@aelisenko]

I think there may be an active shielding application for reentry vehicles. Watching starship form a plasma sheath made me think we could try deflecting the plasma as a way to heat shield the vehicle. May also apply to hypersonic aviation

[@everettstormy]

Think about fusión reactors i think it would br similar to that besides being far less efficient

[@seagie382]

Initially they wanted to drop the heat tiles and pump fuel mist into the plasma to form a sort of bubble

[@FelonyVideos]

I like the way you think. That is novel. Hi IQ style. But... As it happens, the only reason there is a plasma around any reentry vehicle is because the speed of the vehicle versus the air. The leading surface hits the air molecules so fast it heats them to the point of kicking loose their electrons, making said plasma. 1mm before striking them, they are not ionized, so no magnet or electric field can move them out of the way. But it gets worse. The air is actively being used as a brake. If it was possible to move the air out of the way, the ship would have no braking, and would "land" on the surface at 17,000 mph. We prefer 0 mph as a better landing speed. 😂

[@DS-vu5yo]

@@FelonyVideos not debating the cause of the plasma…. But plasma is generally conducive regardless of how it is produced. A pulsed field should be able to be produced that would not only reduce the heat on the tiles- but actually increase the resistance by pushing the plasma out. The heat would of course be absorbed by the generator creating the field…. So no free lunch- but maybe an optimization exercise.

[@aelisenko]

@@FelonyVideos I was thinking the air would initially go through the magnetic field, hit the vehicle and start ionizing, once the plasma layer develops the magnetic field would create a cushion between the plasma and vehicle. At those speeds I don't think the magnetic field would be able to delfect anything just force the plasma off the vehicle slightly, creating an insulating layer. This would likely create a large pressure differential so it would be interesting to simulate the overall effects to the vehicles aerodynamics

[@bendybruce]

You know I've been working on my first science fiction novel for well over three years now, and its yt channels like this that genuinely help me ground some of my absurdly fictional concepts in at least pseudo plausible science.

[@Nidvard]

The best sci-fi's (imo) are the ones which have relevance to reality, so I'm pleased to hear this. Lots of absurd concepts are edging closer to reality anyway. warp drive has become alcubierre drive, and this video shows promises on shielding. If we get the energy production of fusion, we're good to go.

[@bendybruce]

@@Nidvard I'm sure every SF writer has their own opinion on this, but for me anyway, SF Is the best vehicle for Demonstrating very human and down to Earth realities with regards to our failings, but in a way that we are far Less likely to be offended by, because of the fantastical setting. With a strong focus on the human condition, we can also explore what that might mean for our future assuming our mastery of science and technology continues to grow. The actual science behind the fiction is not personally the most important thing to me, but I have a deep respect for the scientific method, and feel I must make the best effort I possibly can to try and honor that.

[@oxjmanxo]

One of my favorite types of shields is a gravity shield. Fucking around with space time in front of your ship so projectiles curve away from your ship. The drawbacks are you need to predict where your enemy is going to shoot. You can’t throw it on reactively as by the time you see a relativistic projectile or laser it’s already too late. You also run the risk of curving an otherwise glancing blow into a bullseye. Battles turn into a contest of who’s gunners can outwit the opponents shielding.

[@bendybruce]

@@oxjmanxo LOVE IT!

[@oxjmanxo]

@@bendybruce a variation of this was a gravity hammer. Why not turn the bending of space time in your shields into a weapon? Turn the gravity up to 11 within the enemy ship. You can add distance limitations to make this a short range use only thing. These are all variations on how to use the classic gravity generator tech in different unique ways.

[@MyrddinE]

I'm sure it's covered in more detail in the actual paper, but it feels like th shadow would be offset by the increased brightness when the protons are deflected into the unshaded areas; a shadow doesn't provide 'shade' if most of the light is still reaching the surface. This feals more like it creates caustics, like light ripples on the bottom of a pool. Sure, the dark areas are darker but the light areas are brighter leading to the same overall radiation exposure. I'd be happy to be wrong.

[@thorzweegers7616]

Exactly.... where are they deflected towards?

[@bobbygetsbanned6049]

I highly doubt particles moving that fast are going to get deflected and keep moving in the same general direction unless they hit the very edge. Shining light on a mirror shines the light back at you, not on the wall next to the mirror.

[@JB52520]

@@bobbygetsbanned6049 Deflection and reflection are different, though. Deflection just needs to push the particles to the side a bit so they can continue on their way. I had the same concern about caustics but didn't think to call it that. If those electrodes are just nudging the particles to areas between the shadows, then it's no improvement. If the astronauts sit in the same place frequently, it would focus the radiation on smaller areas of their bodies, increasing the risk of cancer. But like the OP, I'd be happy to be wrong.

[@dominicsimone]

If you're merely deflecting the particles, then aren't you just concentrating them into the non-shielded parts of the pattern? I suppose if you stacked enough layers of this matrix, then the " tortuous path" you created would have equal probability of reflecting or letting through any given particle?

[@-_James_-]

Surely if you deflect through the first layer, the second layer would just deflect back into the spaces protected by the first layer, thus solving nothing. What you actually need to do is deflect the particles into channels that flow around the ship and back into space.

[@everettstormy]

I wander about catching some of the particles to generate power​@@-_James_-

[@simleek6766]

Yep, you can see in the image that it's brighter in between the non-shielded parts. In that case, you'd probably want a cone of circles of points, with the smallest circle/point forward most, so that any particle can be deflected entirely around a habitable area, like how the some of grid particles were deflected to the outside. Alternatively, you could only protect the parts of a ship that needed to be protected from radiation, and let the parts that can handle much more radiation have much more radiation.

[@chrissears9912]

I was wondering this too, but surely JPL and NASA would have thought of this... The deflection must be a greater angle.

[@elishelton9412]

Yeah I noticed this too, it’s not sending the particles 180 degrees back the way they came, it’s only throwing them a few degrees off and funnelling them into more concentrated areas between the gaps.

[@tomardans4258]

Any astronaut caught in the blast would, of course, develop superpowers.

[@Cyber-Riot]

Ideally, we'd want to "capture" these particles, and translate their energy to into usable power for the craft.

[@JB52520]

I think it would take more energy to accelerate them to match the spacecraft's velocity than whatever energy could harnessed from their charge. But maybe they could do some work on the way by. (Honestly I don't know. Physics is not my forte, it's just fun to think about.)

[@rafaelgonzalez4175]

Ideally we need to resolve the radiation issue of the cosmos before we dive into the radiation of the cosmos. One main reason why deep space is off limits. Absorption of radiation. Passing through the lowest density of the radiation belt was a mission. Dealing with direct radiation now. Deep space. Anything outside of Earth's Radiative belt.

[@JohnDlugosz]

Another reason for discounting the electrostatic approach, even for energies that are doable, is that some particles have the opposite charge.

[@Nidvard]

protons always have a positive charge, that's the definition of the proton. If it had negative charge it would be an electron. For charged ions, they are charged as electrons are stripped away, making them positive charge. So no, no opposite charge.

[@JohnDlugosz]

@@NidvardYou don't find high energy electrons to be a problem? And cosmic rays also see some anti-protons.

[@lafeechloe6998]

@@NidvardHigh energy cosmic events produces a fair part antimatter particles

[@Nidvard]

@@JohnDlugosz if you knew how high energy electrons work and interact then you wouldn't either. If its protons or anti-protons really is irrelevant

[@Nidvard]

@@lafeechloe6998 "fair part" means a few subatomic particles which immediately disintegrate and this is completely harmless. This occurs when particles interact with something, usually the atmosphere. With such a shield those particles would be deflected and never have the chance to interact to make antimatter

[@caeli5532]

I think that to test this shield around the earth, there are enough radiation belts, inside which satellites like SUBESAT can be launched, which can then be returned to the ground and their surface examined under an electron microscope for radiation damage.

[@skyrat3816]

Was thinking the same thing with the van Allan belt (may have spelt that wrong). However, it's going to be down to having a launch vehicle to get prototypes there and could well be achievable once starship is able to take payloads into orbit and possibly bring them back for testing.

[@andymuller327]

I subscribed because you ask the right questions and your hands on approach . Welk done!

[@philipsharpe6905]

That was a great presentation. Thank you!

[@charleslaurice]

Thank you, Dr. Miles you are an incredible teacher. Thank you very much for bringing this.

[@Will_Forge]

"Crew-hat" makes sense because you wear a hat to protect yourself from the sun. This hat protects the whole crew at once. 😂

[@jerrywatson1958]

This was good information, you've earned a new sub today. Thanks for all your hard work.

[@goncalovazpinto6261]

Not enough people talk about this major roadblock to space travel...👍

[@MadScientist267]

Not enough people talk about why space travel is not only pointless but also pointless, and likely pointless.

[@poetryflynn3712]

@@MadScientist267 This is why I honestly think space colonization will never actually happen. No one wants to sacrifice what they have on earth unless you're a nerd.

[@scotthillard3418]

@@poetryflynn3712 "That's why I honestly think that new world colonisation will never happen, nobody wants to sacrifice what they have in Europe unless you're a religious extremist".

[@nickmorzinski5558]

​@scotthillard3418 Exactly lol, we aren't changing our nature anytime soon.

[@spiderlord4181]

​@@poetryflynn3712I don't know who this "no one" is, but it certainly isn't me. The first chance I get I'm jumping ship to something new.

[@drfirechief8958]

I felt like "I" was being bombarded with high energy information in this video, I loved it. The amount of information injected into my brain by Dr Miles was amazing, as was the subject. Wow, what a high energy rush! Love the information available on this channel.

[@Randomknob]

You should check out the Boeing patents for the plasma shield. Pretty cool way to tank particles and all kinds of stuff. No details but I think it uses lasers to create a plasma and devices to control the magnetic fields to form the plasma into a shield. Stops bullets and even photons.

[@ashleyobrien4937]

Excellent quality deep(ish) post's there, Dr. Miles !

[@user-li7ec3fg6h]

Very interesting explanations. Thank you very much!

[@phlanxsmurf]

Love your content. Thanks!

[@Gan_Gineandro]

Fascinating! Well done.

[@geogeek1758]

Brilliant explanations of some very interesting science 👍

[@viperswhip]

Subbed. Since I was a child, I have believed that we need, artificial gravity, shields, and fusion. I have given up on fusion, but we need dual nuclear generators, one breeder and one normal to share the fuel rods between them. We can do all this now I think, but rotating a space station is an immense undertaking.

[@guillermorobledo2842]

There have been many inventors that have been deleted from the world because of those types of inventions/patents. Shadow govs/corpos are to blame for humanity's lack of progress past petro.

[@ZionistWorldOrder]

this is a much better video than the average and definitely better than expected despite title aluding to it being goody good good i didnt expect it to be juicy good. Positively surprised here.

[@l.clevelandmajor9931]

Someone is going to say "Awesome! We have energy shields now!", thinking that these shields will protect our spaceships from enemy weapons fire. NOT! This shielding will only deflect harmful particle radiation, up to a certain energy level. It will not stop lasers, missiles, bullets, fast moving meteors, or even slow moving ones. And if the ship is on a collision course with an asteroid, better change that course as quickly as possible; otherwise the ship will be like a splattered bug on the surface of the asteroid. For particle radiation deflection, this is actually a great breakthrough. As we continue to develop the technology, it will soon be miniature enough to be practical on all spacecraft. The biggest obstacle to its practicality is at this time, weight, which adds more to what the ship's thrusters must accelerate to the desired speed, meaning more weight in the form of fuel and its containers. Now there is some promising experiments concerning massless thrust, but it is still in its infancy! Still there have been some small amount of successes in the studies and experiments. If these two technologies become practical, and can be used in one ship at the same time, it will revolutionize the space travel industry.

[@Nidvard]

Weight of the system is one thing, but also the weight of any energy production to keep this up. To get the weight into place can soon be done rather easily when starship becomes viable. And if this is used for a interplanetary transport system the logistics of weight becomes less significant, also because such a transport system can be set to an continuous orbit with intercepts both earth and mars

[@bgsmember3650]

Unfortunately, kinetic barriers (to protect against kinetic weapons or asteroids) may not be possible, unless there are new physics yet to be discovered.

[@Nidvard]

@@bgsmember3650 more or less all weapons used in human history are kinetic weapons.. And we have good ways to deal with those, it's a new invention called "wall"

[@necromental]

Wow, you didn't lose me once. That was an impressive summary.

[@iamnickmartin]

Excellent video, thanks

[@experimentalcyborg]

"It will be an exciting FIELD to watch for the next few years" I see what you did there

[@DavidThePatriot]

Dude, it makes sense. Radiation hat for the crew. Crew hat. Cheers!😊

[@hatac]

There are two other older designs that I know of. I have the papers somewhere but I'm moving house so they will be impossible to find for a while. One used long kilometer diameter cable loops with charge flows producing a big but low power magnetic field. This trades size for mass and complexity. Field strength is low but the large field means the particle is pulled to the center of the loop. The habitats are close to the loop. There are too versions. One standing on poles on the moon protecting habitats there and one held circular by cable based mass torsion systems. Two counterrotating cables tethered to the other. Centrifugal force holds them circular at low mass. The other proposed system clads the ship with magnetic sheets and fires a particle beam an the very low angle. The magnetic fields bend the beam around the hull forming a migma sheathe. A electron beam fired astern helps. The result is a sheathe of particles going at right angles to the hull. Any dangerous particles are either deflected or entrained. Both were in the British interplanetary society magazine years ago.

[@Ri-ver]

Awesome video, thanks for all the work you put into it! How much do we need to worry about high energy electromagnetic waves / photons compared to the high energy particles? Would we need to include additional engineering for that, or is that not as much of a concern? And if it is a concern, how much of a challenge is it?

[@Nidvard]

electromagnetic forces are carried by photons, and with high enough energy this gets into gamma radiation. This can't be stopped by any electromagnetic field of any kind, so the only way we have to shield against anything like that now is dense mass, as in lead, other metals or as starship plans it, water. Some plans (ideas at this stage) would be that certain compartments of starship with be shielded by among other things the water which is brought along the journey, so when they are at risk of coming across large amounts of gamma radiation the crew would shelter inside said compartments. This doesn't eliminate the problem though, and at this stage this is the best we got. Photons can interact with electrons however, so if any electromagnetic shielding were able to hold/lock electrons in place as an extra barrier, that could possibly help (in my uneducated guess)

[@brodyalden]

Interesting, thank you!

[@justsayjay]

What a gem. Subbed!

[@LettersAndNumbers300]

Nice one Ben

[@vanitacabral4951]

I love your excellent grammar and pronounciation. And, of course, your contents as well.

[@jamesgreenler8225]

With the correct mix of materials a force field can be produced that is impenetrable by even light . It allows things inside the field to occupy a spectrum of the fabric of space time that is not visible.

[@ristube3319]

5:49 Lightning actually just struck outside when I saw this at the same time! THAT MATRIX UPDATE IS GREAT!

[@paulblase3955]

A third problem are the collisions with the interstellar medium with a rapidly moving spacecraft. I'm working with the Breakthrough Starshot communications team, looking at how to communicate with laser-driven sailcraft moving at 0.2c. Erosion due to the ISM is a significant problem.

[@debrainwasher]

This is a correct and the effect is well known. The solution can be found in my post above.

[@KipIngram]

Great video, and exciting ideas! Maybe we'll actually "make it out there" one of these days. I've always thought it's our "natural next step." It's all out there just waiting for us - why stay cooped up in the house we were born in?

[@CrossoverManiac]

Is this why the electrostatic grid requires much lower voltages than originally calculated: instead of trying to apply an equal electric force to stop the charge particle in its tracks, the grid applies a force at right angles and adds a velocity component at right angles to the initial direction of motion causing the charge particles to miss the central area where the crew is? Edit: Kind of like how judo, rather than blocking the punch, redirects it allowing the blow to keep much its original momentum except it's directed away from the person.

[@leverge1]

Amazing

[@LearndingLife]

Perhaps finding a way to get them to work in tandem. Radiation is still energy, if it could harnessed, the deflected rays energy used to help power the magnetic shield, be interesting. ^.^

[@gustavosanchezolea1951]

Inverted screws with electro static protection would deal with coverage, it would also help with propulsion assuming ion drivers are used

[@hovant6666]

'Water Armour' lining the inside of the outer walls of the spacecraft may be a good alternative that would protect against a great deal while doubling as water storage that wouldn't consume additional resources or require energy

[@ADHSV113]

Pardon my question, but what about a hybrid or plasma approach? I was looking at active drag reduction and plasma actuators and plasma control surfaces for some of my designs and I was wondering if an embedded high-voltage/magnetic skin with said emitters would work? Especially if there was a way to print it? The idea to create an intense field to slow or redirect the particles, yes? It doesn’t need to cover the interior, just the exterior.

[@NoGreedSeeds]

Thanks for dumbing that down enough to be informative AND entertaining. Very consumable content, for such a deep and complicated subject. I’m still waiting for ge and cern to get together and create that time travel machine that Titor was talking about…. 🤷‍♂️🤯🎯😝 ANY DAY GUYS! GET ON WITH IT!

[@Scott_C]

Very cool!

[@jamesgreenler8225]

The proper conductors and or semi conductors can do things we haven't discovered yet regarding force fields

[@nathanhale7444]

I saw a documentary back in the early 90s that talked about how a factory that produced sheet plastic like cellophane. There was a walkway where the sheet was directed overhead then back down. Under certain conditions it would create a static barrier. People couldn't walk through it and the researcher was amazed to see a fly stuck inside it unable to escape.

[@nickmorzinski5558]

That's a very interesting documentary!

[@michaelmullenfiddler]

Very interesting!

[@maschwab63]

How about creating a Bussard collector to gather ions into the center of a magnetic pipe then spew them out the rear at a higher speed? Basically an Ion thruster using outside ions as reaction mass.

[@gregm6801]

Be interesting to see what they come up with...and if its possible in our lifetime .

[@Pentross]

The most important thing to remember is that the weight problem isn’t as big as it seems at first - once you have a particle repulsor shield, just dump particles into it and you have an engine

[@norbertdapunt1444]

Awesome.

[@douglasdarling7606]

I saw a commercial for an air filter called an Ionic breeze more than 20 years ago I knew this would be possible even then I was visualizing the engineering

[@donald-parker]

On one hand, I would not have thought cooling in space was a problem since space is cold. On the other hand, I wonder how feasible it would be to use space to cool superconductive materials. If there is heat transfer to space then I supposed it must be radient because there are probably not enough particles to relay on a conductive approach. It would be interesting to hear you explain whether or not the concept of space cooling of superconductors is feasible.

[@i-love-space390]

I had heard that there was a third off shoot to the other two approaches that involve injecting a plasma into the charged area that enhances the effectiveness of the electrostatic approach because the particles of the plasma have their own mass and charge too. Could you add a video addressing this other approach? I think they call it the artificial magnetosphere method.

[@cjhsuliman13]

I wonder if we could absorb and harness the energy rather than deflect it. A conductive layer of shielding over an array of micro wireless chargers and a base layer of conductive shielding. A layer of h2o would further absorb any residual particles and dually act as a salt water capacitor. A regulating circuit to sense the incoming voltage and charge a stepped down high voltage capacitor bank. The capacitor(s) would then drain to charge the onboard batteries For very large bursts of energy we could include a switched drain circuit powering the tesla coil like shielding. For directed energy weapons with smaller implications a general use shield could incorporate this and power up a tungsten or quartz headlight to dissipate the energy.

[@diddykong3100]

The other problem with electrostatic repulsion to stop charged particles, aside from the crazy high voltages needed, is that what stops things of one charge only makes those of the opposite charge worse. Magnets can bend both types aside - albeit to opposite sides, but that's fine.

[@diddykong3100]

So doubly cool that someone worked out how to navigate round the problem ;^>

[@kevinsayes]

If this ends up ever being scalable, or if whatever is grows out of this, it would be a huge discovery

[@brettgoldenbloome7036]

why not combine both approaches. Have the magnetic wrapped by the electrostatic deflection. Both could be at lower power/magnetic levels and offer the same deflection hopefully combining the advantages of both rather then the disadvantages of both.

[@JoshtMoody]

@DrBenMiles as an accelerator physicist, by and large I liked your video. However, I do have a comment about you saying what is achieved by old school particle smashers only being in the MV range, especially when showing what appears to be a synchrotron animation. What you said was true about electrostatic fields ie Van de Graaf accelerators, etc. However cyclotrons and synchrotrons are not limited to the MV range. Otherwise we wouldn't have TeV protons at LHC at CERN. The difference is time dependent fields in microwave cavities, that can get up to TeV energy gains with a closed loop or GeV energy gains in linear systems like SLAC. If you were, however, talking about accelerating gradients, in units of energy per unit distance, MeV/m, for example, you would be roughly correct. Our best microwave accelerators still only have gradients around a few 100MeV /m. Luckily we have plasma acceleration, dielectric accelerators, etc, which push the gradient up to GeV or even TeV per meter. It may be possible, with enough plasma density and energy in a laser pulse or particle beam, to get up to EeV or ZeV / m gradients before the high energy density physics gets so interesting that the plasmas are too unstable to provide that gradient over an appreciable distance. Good luck out there!

[@russellmitchell9438]

A matrix with electric charge over a dielectric region. Their cage-like models demonstrate the principle, but have gaps in the protection. Their solution was to add an additional offset layer. I would instead work with the scale; at the lower limit, they're describing a capacitor. Incorporate electrodes in the lamination of the hull. If it needs a more complicated structure, treat it as a metamaterial problem.

[@armwrestlerjeff]

Idk how they can stack that mesh to make it cover the holes in shielding coverage because the particles are simply deflected around those nodes and would become concentrated around the second layer of nodes, effectively undoing the deflection of first layer

[@xband]

32 Mev/m is not the record for rf high energy accelerators. Your number likely comes from recent superconductor cavities, normal conductor in copper rf cavities have performed at gradients up to 3x this running at over 100Mev/m. I worked on tests at Slac often with these cavities.

[@H4hT53]

I wonder if the recent break-throughs concerning virtual magnetic fields generated by meta-materials will play into this development down the line.

[@islandsedition]

This isn't my field, and I am new to the channel so forgive my ignorance but would it be possible to reduce the drain on the craft's power by converting some of the high energy particles into a power source to at least power the shield?

[@eugeneminton2613]

could you instead of stopping the particles, deflect them? think of a funnel... could there also be a way to use that outlet as a power source? think like a hydro power plant,.. directing the flow of the particle through a space to create a variance that could be utilized. i know we use solar power systems in space.. and nuclear decay. i had a fancy idea to use temperature variances thou... like a geothermal power or steam/boiler power generator. the light side of a vehicle can get much hotter than the dark side of one. but i've never heard of it being done in space. i'm also guessing it would be different the closer you are to a light source. if created maybe that could help generate power as well?? just not sure if it can be done using the particles that are deflected/slowed etc.

[@timothyg967]

I would love to see the grid tested at various angles, perhaps those results are hidden for further development

[@kevinkroll2898]

With the grid technique is the total radiation quantity reduced or is it just redirected into a quilt pattern?

[@martinwilliams9866]

I've come up with four force field systems, the first is the same as Bell labs a static discharge, the second electromagnetic induced eddy currents in incoming metal, the third graphene balloons, the fourth using high frequency increasing amplitude longitudinal mono-polarised waves that would combine at a certain distance, as higher amplitude longitudinal waves travel faster than lower amplitude ones.

[@dgermain001]

I was wondering this could be used to easily shield moon bases or mars habitat, or if just pile of regolith is the way to go?

[@arachnohack9050]

So they made an electrostatic shield at a 3M (sellotape and film) factory by accident. There's a few snippets of info about this out there, but it happened before the Internet was popular. I'd love to see a proper mini-doc on this as most vids here on KZbin are very short.

[@nzoomed]

Would a bunch of strong neodymium magnets lining the habitat be enough to protect you inside?

[@amitrokach5803]

IMO the second layer of the grid EM shield will not work as expected the high energy particles are deflected to the places between the "shadows" this means that the next layer would again deflect it to a pattern similar to only one layer..

[@diraziz396]

Cool. we need to start working on it. Arthur C. Clarke & Stephen Baxter wrote a Book named - Sunstorm. the sun shield concept is widely discussed. actually it's part of a Trio named - Time's Eye, Sunstorm & Firstborn. Wonderful audiobooks online by John Lee.

[@rodchristoffersen7052]

Would a material that could exploit these properties of deep space be made/ exist. The idea bebing so as to harness the energy from these particles as a energy source or even as a means of propulsion. Surely this would be more efficient instead of fighting these properties of space, maybe we could utilise them?

[@michaelcombrink8165]

What if you place charged shield deflector far away from the craft, essentially scatter anything coming in and diffuse with distance Eg bigger shadow Is most of the radiation from the sun, could you more heavily protect that side and save the budget on the other sides

[@ZionistWorldOrder]

electrostatic mitigation of lunar dust and martian dust on solar panels is an old thing yet we speak today as if these are still discoveries to be made, how does that relate to shields? Perhaps these are also ahead of mainstream the way military tech is often ahead of commercial..?

[@Nidvard]

This does not relate to shields. Military tech gets their components from the same factories that produce components for commercial products.

[@glennwiebe5128]

When it comes to this kind of way-out-there physics, I'm at a loss. A fleeting thought occurred while watching the Dr's video. Part of the problem is generating the amount of power needed to counter the incoming particles/waves. Would there not be value in using these same particles to produce the power to defeat them? Not unlike a water wheel? Not in structure but in concept. The main issue, though, may be the destructive nature of the particles on whatever mechanism is used to interact with them. But, continuing the water wheel analogy, the goal would be to use the water's force, as it rushes past, to generate the power to produce the shielding needed. But, again, it was a fleeting thought...

[@Xabraxus]

I'd imagine the optimal radiation shield would take incoming particles and immediately dump and convert all the energy of the incoming particle into spatial expansion, basically turning the kinetic energy into new planck lengths of spacetime that get spawned into the universe. How would this be accomplished? Use the energy to drag space from a 4th dimension into the 3rd dimension, the only problem is we would need an interface with the 4th dimension to do this.

[@darthrainbows]

The shape of the shielding on the electrostatic model makes me suspect that the particles that would have struck the shielded areas are simply being directed onto the unshielded areas. That's fine if you can shield the entire region occupied by the spacecraft, but layering offset shields won't do the trick. Particles that pass through the unshielded areas of the first layer would get redirected into the unshielded areas of the 2nd layer. The only way laering would work is if you can preferentially redirect incoming particles in one direction. Each layer redirects away from the spacecraft in the center, so whatever particles that get through one layer have a chance to get redirected away by the next. IDK if that's possible or not.

[@lbochtler]

meanwhile ernst brüche, tektronix and basically every CRT based oscilloscope has used electrostatic deflection the math behind hit is well understod. the ability to deflect beams of high energy with low potential fields has also been known about and used for well over 100 years now. The only novel thing i have seen is the idea to create an electrostatic lens array that reduces the total radiant power at a large distance.

[@ZMacZ]

14:26 One step beyond is the RAM-scoop. Deflect the particles into a material chamber, and expel as thrust on the back end of the vessel. Mere field tech and hardly new actually. 14:51 They can use a mere cyclotron for testing purposes. In nature NTL (near transfer of light) hadrons are unlikely. If any vessel is moving at like 0.1 LS (c) the particles they encounter the most would not exceed 0.2 LS, which can be created artificially by a cyclotron. Specially single protons. The problem isn't these charged protons, but the actual non-charged colloidal matter particles. They'd need ionisation before they can be deflected by any field.

[@freehat2722]

5:37 MeV and MV are two different animals. Mega electron Volts is a measure of power and mega-volts is half of the equation to determine power. Where are the amps or whatever?

[@lafeechloe6998]

He used the righ terms...

[@GameModder]

Deflecting particles instead of slowing them down is a simple but genious idea no one thought about until recently.

[@spaceman9599]

Radiation and high velocity impacts too. One step nearer interstellar travel...

[@vortexgen1]

The deal is to deflect the particle, not block it, hence "deflector shield". All you have to do is nudge it slightly out of your way. This is the same thing we want to do with incoming asteroids, just nudge them a little bit to avoid hitting Earth.

[@qa1e2r4]

ahhh this clicks with a statement made once about allegedly alien space craft material that had woven mech like structure. Because the cube sample will transform in to a woven/knited like material when scaled up and i believe the closer the electrodes the stronger the fields... Quickly someone knit me some particle protection fabric...oh wait siera space is already knitting space station :D

[@user-pu2ho4ip3d]

High energy particles... Seems to me. We could use the energy to reinforce the magnetic Deflecting shield. Using the particle against itself. The stronger the particles.. the stronger the shielding. So you need like a particle collector into a reactor. Which is turned Into Plasma Energy..? Idk.. Mind swirling stuff. Cool to think about.. Constructive interference Waves. Thanks for the update. A Veteran 1Cav. Age 67.

[@magicmanchloe]

8:27 question, isn’t space cold? Like sub -200 C well within the range of superconducting materials. Why can’t they use space itself to cool the superconductor? Sorry if it’s a dumb question. Just curious and looking to learn.

[@AageV]

Because space is a vacuum, there are no particles around to conduct heat away from the spacecraft. One of the challenges in space is actually to not overheat because the only way to lose heat is through radiation.

[@dennisgreiwe2078]

That ran through my mind too.

[@Nidvard]

As have been mentioned space is cold but also empty, with constant radiation from the sun, combined with heat-producing components which produces heat, where the only way to dissipate that heat is due to radiation. Imagine how much colder you'd be if you swim in 10c water compared to it being 10c in the air, you cool down a lot faster in the water as it conducts temperature. in space, there is nothing to conduct such temperature. Look at JWST, the reason why it has all those layers of foil is to stop heat radiation from the sun, and when deployed it needed a long time to be able to get the temperatures low enough for it to function, and that was with active cooling systems. And remember this, no sincere questions are ever dumb, it just goes to show you are interested in learning. Dumb people don't want to learn.

[@NeilStansbury]

@@Nidvard I've often wondered if there is an interesting combined approach here. Using something like a plasma or ion type thruster, whereby the stream of inert propellant is first used as a "refrigerant" to extract heat from a system before the stream is then full accelerated by the main engine.

[@Nidvard]

@@NeilStansbury sure, but then you're left with the issue of cooling the propellant down to those temperatures, and you would also be dependent on accelerating non stop. Idea isn't bad though, it's a similar idea to how most rocket engines are cooled these days

[@user-oj4xh8cg2l]

Am I totally out of it or does the shifted/2 stage version really work - or even the concept itself at scale ? I understand that deflected parcticles are exactly that: deflected, then keep on going in the non dark region (assuming about twice the density for a "50% efficiency" stage), but then the second stage just moves the beams of particles again... it's like two sieves in a row : that is not water tight...

[@davidvandyk1171]

Through the vacuum space, would the electrostatic shielding electrodes not leak a substantial amount of current?

[@MrEasterrabbit]

The ideal form of a magnetic field is a sphere. Why don't we construct a spherical ship with a kind of superconductive permanent magnet that can be electrically amplified if necessary? The thick shell inside the sphere could also be shielded in the conventional way and individual layers could be polarized differently.

[@AishaShaw-cl6wc]

Good video.🌸🌸🌸