NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Shayne Westover
NASA Johnson Space Center


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Human space exploration exposes astronauts to particularly hazardous environments unique from Earth-based hazards. A substantial risk for exploration beyond the confines of the Earth’s geomagnetic field is radiation exposure from energetic solar protons and Galactic Cosmic Radiation. The concept of shielding astronauts with magnetic/electric fields has been studied for over 40 years and has remained an intractable engineering problem. Superconducting magnet technology has made great strides in the last decade. Coupling maturing technology with potential innovative magnet configurations, this proposal aims to revisit the concept of active magnetic shielding. The focus of the proposed work is to analyze new coil configurations with current technology and compare shielding performance and design mass with alternate passive shielding methods.