Sci Fi space ship shield idea

[Othuyeg]

So, as we all know, space is not empty and this poses a major problem to space flight. If a space ship is moving at high speeds hitting even the smallest of particles can cause massive damage. Most often this is not even noticed in sci fi, or it is explained that the ships have force fields.

I came up with an idea for a shield that I believe might be a viable option for shielding a space ship from the threat. Since I know NASA is going to be all over this thing, I am going to name it the Othuyeg shield and they won't be able to pronounce it in their press release.

My idea is to pump a large blob of ferrofluid on top of the space ship (for example the nose) and then to keep it there with a magnetic field. The liquid will absorbe the energy of an impact and then reform under the magnetic field.

Discuss, admire and behold my magnificence.

[SargeRho]

The ship would accumulate a cloud of particles ahead of itself if it has an erosion shield. I think the idea behind Project Daedalus' starship was that the beryllium erosion shield is initially erroded by impacts, creating a cloud of particles that act as primary shield. Another, way too expensive method, would be to create a bubble of antimatter around the ship that annihilates everything that comes in, while also acting as Explosive Reactive Armor.

Or you can wrap it in Graphene.

[TheSaint]

It's a solution in search of a problem. Interplanetary space is empty. Really empty. The odds of you encountering a particle that is more substantial than the solar wind are vanishingly small. Your mission is more likely to be cancelled because all of the astronauts win the lottery a week before it launches.

Interstellar space is even emptier. But if you're in interstellar space it can be assumed that you're moving at a large fraction of the speed of light. If you hit any significant particle at those speeds, it won't matter what you're shielded with. Even running into sub-atomic particles at those speeds will be a problem; they become high-energy radiation. But that can be alleviated by putting a simple shield in front of your ship. Clarke suggested using water ice in Songs of Distant Earth, since it's readily available and easy to fabricate.

Using the shield you describe would make the system more prone to failure, and a shield failure at those speeds would be fatal. It would also weigh more, since you have the mass of the shielding plus the mass of the field generators, plus the mass of the extra power plant you need to keep the field generators running. And, as all we all know from KSP, every kilo you can save makes your mission that much more likely to succeed.

[falofonos]

A long time ago, in a seat a short distance away I read about proposals for a hockey puck sized probe to fly to alpha-centauri.

The proposed shield for its interstellar journey was a globe of charged plasma held in place with a magnetic field. Not sure the plasma would be dense enough for really high energy impacts but the plan was to get this thing up to 10% c. It was all very hand wavey.

Some sort of multilayer laminate of paraffin and lead would probably catch most of the high energy stuff, fronted by an impactor catching wipple shield made of titanium or Kevlar to deal with any pesky micrometeors would provide a solid state solution without any need for energy input. Bearing in mind that real hard data on the interstellar medium is kinda sparse there is no way to know how much shielding you would need, so best load up for the worst possible case.

[Psycix]

It's a solution in search of a problem. Interplanetary space is empty. Really empty. The odds of you encountering a particle that is more substantial than the solar wind are vanishingly small. Your mission is more likely to be cancelled because all of the astronauts win the lottery a week before it launches.

Interstellar space is even emptier. But if you're in interstellar space it can be assumed that you're moving at a large fraction of the speed of light. If you hit any significant particle at those speeds, it won't matter what you're shielded with. Even running into sub-atomic particles at those speeds will be a problem; they become high-energy radiation. But that can be alleviated by putting a simple shield in front of your ship. Clarke suggested using water ice in Songs of Distant Earth, since it's readily available and easy to fabricate.

Using the shield you describe would make the system more prone to failure, and a shield failure at those speeds would be fatal. It would also weigh more, since you have the mass of the shielding plus the mass of the field generators, plus the mass of the extra power plant you need to keep the field generators running. And, as all we all know from KSP, every kilo you can save makes your mission that much more likely to succeed.

Very well put, I agree with everything.

What I'd like to add, is that instead of trying to withstand lightspeed impacts (if any), the easier thing to do is to provide redundancy. Send two ships! Or a thousand!

[vger]

Very well put, I agree with everything. What I'd like to add, is that instead of trying to withstand lightspeed impacts (if any), the easier thing to do is to provide redundancy. Send two ships! Or a thousand!

You think building multiple light-speed ships is simpler than shielding one?

And... I don't think many astronauts would be particularly comfortable with the 'redundancy' plan.