First steps towards deflectors?

[Enkidu]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/ ... technology

"Shields up!" barks Captain James T Kirk as the Starship Enterprise braces itself for another blast from the Klingon cruiser, referring to that essential accessory without which the crew could never have ventured beyond the final frontier.

And while real astronauts are not thought to face quite the same risk from alien species, engineers are developing a similar shield to protect them from the solar wind, a stream of high-energy charged particles from the sun travelling faster than the speed of sound.

They say protecting crew members on long-term missions to Mars or the moon will be essential because the stream of particles causes mutations to DNA which can lead to cancer.

UK researchers have created a scaled-down version of the solar wind in a lab in Oxfordshire to study how to use magnetic shielding to protect astronauts. "We now have actual measurements that show a 'hole' in the solar wind could be created in which a spacecraft could sit, affording some protection from 'ion storms', as they would call them on Star Trek," said Dr Ruth Bamford, a physicist at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Chilton.

The question of how to fend off the solar wind has been given some urgency by an international plan - the Global Exploration Strategy, signed by 14 space agencies including those of Britain, China, France and the US - to return to the moon and send astronauts further into space. George Bush has committed the US to a return trip to the moon by 2020 and the ultimate aim is to send people on the eight-month voyage to the red planet.

Bamford and her colleagues took a tip from our own planet when designing their "ion shield". Earth's magnetic field produces a magnetic shell called the magnetosphere which deflects charged particles in the solar wind. "We wouldn't have life on Earth if we were fully exposed to the radiation coming from the sun," she said. "It's our first layer of defence."

The team simulated the solar wind in the lab using an intense beam of charged high-energy particles. They placed a powerful magnet in this beam to investigate how effective it was at deflecting the particles. Bamford said it worked perfectly. The pinky glow of the plasma beam curved around the magnet just as the team had predicted. "It seems like quite a simple thing to do and it is, but what we are trying to do is put numbers on how effective this is," said Bamford. "I think a lot of people in space science didn't necessarily believe it could work as well as it did - and it worked superbly well."

Now that the team have demonstrated the principle, their next challenge is to make a device energy-efficient enough to be powered by a spacecraft, Bamford said.

Funny to open the paper on Monday and be confronted with a large picture of the Ent A. As well as the optimism for at least a theory to provide a possible solution to one of the big problems of a trip to Mars, the article shows how much Star Trek is still tied to space exploration in the zeitgeist.

[Monroe]

Sounds more like a navigational shield.
Its amazing how much tech is inspired by Trek or simliar to trek.

[Blackstar the Chakat]

Sounds more like a navigational shield.
Its amazing how much tech is inspired by Trek or simliar to trek.

Cell phones are a big one. Having monitors around hospital beds to show vitals. The new metamaterials are being experimented with to create a cloaking device of sorts. And they're still working on a hypospray. It would be nice if they got that to work. I hate needles. And unlike many people who hate needles I had a very bad experiance with one. Stupid Nurse thought I was just complaning to get attention because I couldn't possibly feel the IV. A different nurse realized what nurse one screwed up and had to stick me again. Come to think of it, the first episode of Star Trek I saw involved hyposprays. OMG! I like Star Trek because I had my tonsils removed!

Wow. I didn't expect to go that random.

[Mikey]

Many technological advances can be compared to 'Trek, but most of these seem to be cases of "convergent evolution." This shield against the solar wind is related in no way to any of the pseudo-science behind 'Trek shields - it just happens to be similar in "appearance" and deployment.

I love Star Trek, but to say that cell phones, hospital monitors, this anti-cancer magnetic field, and similar things are or have been invented BECAUSE they were inspired by 'Trek is a little loony. Do you really mean to say that if there were no Star Trek, these scientists wouldn't have cared about the danger of cancer to the astronauts in question? It was inspired by the Earth's own naturally occuring magnetic field, as is mentioned in the article.

I use a prefilled syringe "pen" for insulin delivery. In the fact that it has a pre-filled reservoir, it is similar to a Star Trek hypospray. However, it wasn't created because some pharmacist was a 'Trek fan - it was created because people have diabetes and a use was seen for an easier insulin delivery method.

BTW - I give myself four shots a day. The only thing that makes injections bad is our own preconceptions.

[Blackstar the Chakat]

Well not caused by trek, but some things may be inspired by it. May have accelerated the rate of development for certain things. Although many times they had stuff on trek that was already in development by the military. At least according to one interview I've seen, where every so often a goverment official came around asking questions about how the writers knew about something. Although having that tech on the show would make it easier to dismiss claims that something similar was being produced IRL.

[Monroe]

The guy who invented Quicktime said that he was inspired by a TNG episode.

[Sionnach Glic]

Cool article. Very interesting.