i reciently heard that nasa was testing different types of magnetic shielding on spacecraft. i was wondering how would magnetics be used as a shielding mechanism, and how plausible even is the idea.

 

if someone could direct me to a site where i could learn more, that would be very kind.

well, a lot of radiation in space is made up of charged particles, magnetic fields can be used to deflect these particles away from the craft(or to designated hard points where the radiation can be safely absorbed).

 

it could also be used on reentry as the plasma generated by friction will be affected by magnetic fields, the plasma could be kept at a distance from the craft to minimise contact heating and funneled around the craft safely.

is this a new concept? as i remeber atleast 10 years ago thinking to myself that the above could be possible

no, it is far from a new concept, it is just that it tends to require a fair bit of electrical power to generate a powerful enough field covering a large enough volume. there are also technical problems in manipulating the fields effectively without causing interferance with onboard systems. we are only beginning to be able to get the power generating capacity into space in order to produce them.

huh, LOL power capacity in space... something to think about.

Nuclear power generation in space, both for turbine thrusters and in space cooling by placing the nuclear plant ont he skin of the ship

http://www.thespacereview.com/article/308/1

 

http://thayer.dartmouth.edu/~Simon_G_Shepherd/research/Shielding/index.html