# way of protecting astronauts against cosmic radiation?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-of-protecting-astronauts-against-cosmic-radiation/316597>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 11, 2005, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-of-protecting-astronauts-against-cosmic-radiation/316597 "2005-08-11T15:51:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\
**Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-of-protecting-astronauts-against-cosmic-radiation/316597/21 "2005-08-12T19:40:34Z")

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> [@Q.E.D.](#):
>
> I guess this depends upon your definition of “shield”. If you mean completely block out magnetic fields, you’ll get no argument from me. But, it is perfectly possible to attenuate the strength of a field by surrounding the area to be protected with a contiguous shell of magnetically “conductive” (we say it has a high _permeability_) material, in the same manner as a Faraday cage.

Yeah, I should have qualified that answer; for all practical purposes, you can’t (currently) significantly attenuate a magnetic field that would be intense enough to deflect coronal charged particles. (This depends on how large you build the field, of course; a very large, low flux density field would be easier to shield than a small, high density field, but then you’d have to build a much larger apparatus to control the field.) And you have the difficulty of powering the field, unless you have some highly compact superconducting magnets, so in practice spacecraft designers talk in terms of using physical shielding, especially water or hydrogen embedded in some matrix.

Now, if we could just dig up a few magnetic monopoles…

Stranger

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**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\
**Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-of-protecting-astronauts-against-cosmic-radiation/316597/22 "2005-08-12T21:54:22Z")

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**Q.E.D.** , what is you opinion of the Demron stuff?

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