http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2008/11/04/traveling-to-mars-youll-need-this-miniature-magnetic-force-field/ 80beats is DISCOVER's news aggregator, weaving together the choicest tidbits from the best articles covering the day\'s most compelling topics. Sun, 22 Nov 2009 03:44:10 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2008/11/04/traveling-to-mars-youll-need-this-miniature-magnetic-force-field/comment-page-1/#comment-12459 Joe Elliot Tue, 04 Nov 2008 23:54:07 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2008/11/04/traveling-to-mars-youll-need-this-miniature-magnetic-force-field/#comment-12459 Wouldn't a good possible way be to use a combined solar/other energy source on a device that would be positioned away from the craft so as to not completely interfere with ships instruments? Say you put a magnet on the wing of a plane, positioned between the sun and the craft, allowing for the deflection of the radiation around the craft, much like earth deflects radiation around itself. On the moon, you could have the device mounted on a sort of tower. Or would this not work due to the radiation curving back in gradually after it is deflected? Wouldn’t a good possible way be to use a combined solar/other energy source on a device that would be positioned away from the craft so as to not completely interfere with ships instruments? Say you put a magnet on the wing of a plane, positioned between the sun and the craft, allowing for the deflection of the radiation around the craft, much like earth deflects radiation around itself. On the moon, you could have the device mounted on a sort of tower. Or would this not work due to the radiation curving back in gradually after it is deflected?

]]> http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2008/11/04/traveling-to-mars-youll-need-this-miniature-magnetic-force-field/comment-page-1/#comment-12454 david heron Tue, 04 Nov 2008 23:36:43 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2008/11/04/traveling-to-mars-youll-need-this-miniature-magnetic-force-field/#comment-12454 Hopefully now we might investigate devices that do not take an almighty amount of power to function adequately, as this 'run of the mill' every day object has produced evidence that big is definitely not better. Unfortunately we can not comprehend that great inventions/discoveries usually start off from something miniscule and then grow through peoples collective and individual effort and knowledge. Let us hope we take heed of this 'small' discovery and endeavour not to make 'huge or large' inventions that need an infinite quantity of energy(which we increasingly do not have) at this moment. Hopefully now we might investigate devices that do not take an almighty amount of power to function adequately, as this ‘run of the mill’ every day object has produced evidence that big is definitely not better. Unfortunately we can not comprehend that great inventions/discoveries usually start off from something miniscule and then grow through peoples collective and individual effort and knowledge. Let us hope we take heed of this ’small’ discovery and endeavour not to make ‘huge or large’ inventions that need an infinite quantity of energy(which we increasingly do not have) at this moment.

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