Artificial Planetary Magnetospheres

[stevebowers]

An artificial planetary magnetosphere created by superconducting loops, as described in this paper by
Osamu Motojima and Nagato Yanagi
http://www.nifs.ac.jp/report/NIFS-886.pdf



This system sounds considerably more practical than my Lagrange Magshield idea, except that the magnetic flux near he superconductor itself might be a bit strong for some sensitive forms of equipment.
An artificial planetary magnetosphere created by superconducting loops, as described in this paper by Osamu Motojima and Nagato Yanagi http://www.nifs.ac.jp/report/NIFS-886.pdf This system sounds considerably more practical than my Lagrange Magshield idea, except that the magnetic flux near he superconductor itself might be a bit strong for some sensitive forms of equipment.

[stevebowers]

From the article;
"The finite magnetic field generated by a 6.4 MA superconducting ring would necessitate a 2.6 km safety zone adjacent to the cable to assure that the public exposure limit of 5 G is not exceeded. The routes for laying the cables should thus be chosen carefully to avoid cities and residential areas."

5 Gauss is a safety limit imposed because of pacemakers and so on.

[terrafamilia]

[quote='stevebowers' pid='1349' dateline='1373139704']
An artificial planetary magnetosphere created by superconducting loops, as described in this paper by
Osamu Motojima and Nagato Yanagi
http://www.nifs.ac.jp/report/NIFS-886.pdf

Hmm...speaking of geomagnetic engineering, something rather more fanciful to put it mildly -
http://io9.com/how-america-could-have-ru...-676652154

Ciao,

Terrafamilia

[Drashner1]

Hm. I rather like the Lagrange mag shield, which might actually be easier to build since it would be in freefall, not have to deal with weather or land movements, etc. plus the whole safety issue.

That said this sort of thing might be done from time to time on some places. Perhaps it might also be built into artificial planets to give them magnetic fields?

Todd

[stevebowers]

A lagrange magshield could, in theory, be located quite close to the planet, by extending the length of the tether. This would increase the efficiency, but the increasing gravity near the planet would increase the strain on the tether until it could no longer withstand the weight of the shield.

A magshield on the surface of that planet as described in this article would not have this problem, and would be easier to maintain, but it would impose 5km wide no-go zones all round the planet. Actually I think these zones would not be impassable obstacles, but rather inconvenient barriers, which could be crossed quite easily in a tunnel lined with a Faraday Cage. Think of them as giant rivers or mountain chains passing all round the world- they could act as political barriers as well as physical ones.

[Drashner1]

Perhaps these might be used as part of experiments where you wanted to keep ecosystems separate while also give your laboratory planet a mag field?

Maybe create a mechosystem on a planet that is immune to the field or even actively uses them in various ways?

Thoughts?

Todd

[kch49er]

From the article;
"The finite magnetic field generated by a 6.4 MA superconducting ring would necessitate a 2.6 km safety zone adjacent to the cable to assure that the public exposure limit of 5 G is not exceeded. The routes for laying the cables should thus be chosen carefully to avoid cities and residential areas."

5 Gauss is a safety limit imposed because of pacemakers and so on.

Don't MRI scanners go up to 3 Tesla or so? Presumably similar precautions can be taken for those people that need to go nearby. Not everyone would be able to go near those with pacemakers, but technicians can be selected from a larger population. Although wouldn't pigeons and some other species be affected more?

Hm. I rather like the Lagrange mag shield, which might actually be easier to build since it would be in freefall, not have to deal with weather or land movements, etc. plus the whole safety issue.

That said this sort of thing might be done from time to time on some places. Perhaps it might also be built into artificial planets to give them magnetic fields?

Todd

A lagrange magshield could, in theory, be located quite close to the planet, by extending the length of the tether. This would increase the efficiency, but the increasing gravity near the planet would increase the strain on the tether until it could no longer withstand the weight of the shield.

A magshield on the surface of that planet as described in this article would not have this problem, and would be easier to maintain, but it would impose 5km wide no-go zones all round the planet. Actually I think these zones would not be impassable obstacles, but rather inconvenient barriers, which could be crossed quite easily in a tunnel lined with a Faraday Cage. Think of them as giant rivers or mountain chains passing all round the world- they could act as political barriers as well as physical ones.

I think this might be more likely later on in the scenario with artificial planets and terraforming prior to colonisation. You could
create the mag shield then place cites accordingly. Build the shielded tunnel bridge for the majority of the population. With OA tech you could probably design a flying car that can cross keeping people shielded inside. Perhaps you would have a special class or even clade for maintenance.

Perhaps these might be used as part of experiments where you wanted to keep ecosystems separate while also give your laboratory planet a mag field?

Maybe create a mechosystem on a planet that is immune to the field or even actively uses them in various ways?

Thoughts?

Todd

I wonder if this is an instance where biological technology would be better than a mechosystem. The system will have metals it can't use. I suppose optical storage would be ok, and optical or nano-scale Babbage gates if made from the right materials might work. Though using sofbots or bio-nano or even neogenes would avoid a lot of these issues right?