Posted on 08/03/2023 6:38:40 AM PDT by Jan_Sobieski
The radiation belts around Earth are loaded with dangerous protons and electrons that can damage spacecraft. Now researchers are launching experiments to see if they can clear away the high-energy particles that pose the hazard by blasting them with radio waves.
When humans began exploring space, the first major find was the Van Allen radiation belts, doughnut-shaped zones of magnetically trapped, highly energetic charged particles. The Van Allen belts consist mainly of two rings: The inner belt starts roughly 1000 kilometers above Earth’s surface and extends up to 9600 km, while the outer belt stretches from about 13 500 to 58 000 km above Earth. The location and shapes of the belts can vary, and they can even merge completely.
High-energy protons are found within the area of the inner belt, whose size remains generally stable over the course of years to decades. The outer belt, on the other hand, is home to high-energy electrons and can vary dramatically in size and shape over the course of hours or days.
The huge amounts of radiation in the Van Allen belts can pose major risks for the host of satellites that pass through or orbit within these swaths of space. There are ways to make spacecraft more resistant against this radiation. For instance, spikes on their surfaces known as electron emitters can radiate away excess lower-energy electrons that might otherwise accumulate and cause a spark. In addition, shielding can help keep high-energy protons and electrons from penetrating nonconducting materials and building up inside them, which could lead to a damaging discharge…
(Excerpt) Read more at spectrum.ieee.org ...
Initial efforts to clear the Van Allen belts targeted electrons because they tend to get trapped there as the result of high-altitude nuclear explosions. In 1962, a U.S. high-altitude nuclear weapons test named Starfish Prime generated a highly energetic artificial electron belt that disabled the first commercial communications satellite, TelStar 1, so researchers sought ways to protect spacecraft from nuclear weapons used in space.
However, it’s the protons in the inner belt that scientists have recently explored. Getting rid of them would potentially open up valuable new orbits for satellites and make travel safer for astronauts, says Maria de Soria-Santacruz Pich, whose Ph.D. work at MIT was on manipulating the Van Allen belts. It might also be impossible.
This is ridiculous. Why dont we solve our problems in our back yard before we go messing with God’s universe.
Remember when we messed around with the Van Allen Belt in the 60s. Irwin Allen made a movie about it and turned it into a TV series. “Voyage to the Bottom Of The Sea.” We set the Belt on fire.
That was the plot to the pilot movie “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea’..................
GMTA!.....................Yes, we are old..............
WTF - the Van Allen belts are what protects the Earth from cosmic radiation that would kill life on Earth. We wipe out the Van Allen Belts and we wipe out life on Earth.
Isn’t that just like arrogant leftists? They dont’ fully understand something so their first instinct is to write it off as useless and try to destroy it.
What’s the reason for the van Allen belts? Do they provide the Earth with some kind of protection from cosmic radiation? Why fool around with it?
You beat me to it. Don’t they teach anything in schools anymore? I think I learned that in grade school somewhere. Maybe 4-5 grade.
LOL! I know. Minds like traps!
The left really has a God complex.
“Wormwood calling ...”
“safer” for Astronauts?
Did we not already send Astronauts through these belts?
Or was that a total fake-out.
They ABSOLUTELY do!
I was part of the nerd group in school and we always watched Voyage and Start trek and Lost in Space and Time Tunnel etc................
+1
“We wipe out the Van Allen Belts and we wipe out life on Earth.”
I think you just figured out the plan....
:-)
You beat me to it. The climate cultists have gone insane, if they ever were sane.
When I get rid of my belt, there are unintended consequences.
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