Scientists remove major deep space travel obstacle

One of the biggest obstacles to deep space travel has been overcome by a team of Spanish and British scientists.

International space agencies have always warned about the fatal risk posed by 'storms' of solar energy particles for any potential trips to Mars.

The Earth is protected by a magnetic bubble, the magnetosphere, which deflects the dangerous cosmic rays. No such protection is available in deep space.

Although astronauts on the Apollo missions to the moon managed to avoid bursts of the particles it is believed encountering a "solar storm" would be inevitable on the 18-month journey to Mars.

Since the 1960s a proposal to provide astronauts with their own portable mini-magnetosphere had been deemed impractical because it was believed the force field would have to be several hundred kilometres wide to work.

New research has established this is not the case, however.

Scientists at the Universities of York, Strathclyde and Lisbon have undertaken experiments which show only a magnetosphere which is several hundred metres wide could prove effective.

They recreated in miniature a tiny piece of the solar wind to confirm a small 'hole' is all that would be needed to keep the astronauts safe on their journey to our nearest neighbours.

One of the leading researchers on the project, Ruth Bamford, said: "These initial experiments have shown promise and that it may be possible to shield astronauts from deadly space weather."

The research is published today in the Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion journal.