Star Treck shields will protect Man in space

 

Cosmic rays and solar flares are one of the chief hazards faced by astronauts venturing into space and the need to protect crews against them is one of the biggest obstacles to long missions.

On the surface of the Earth, the magnetic field that envelops our planet deflects most of this radiation, and even in the low orbits used by the space shuttle and the International Space station (ISS) it offers a measure of protection.

Beyond the magnetic field, however, astronauts would be exposed to constant low levels of radiation that would raise their risk of cancers. Solar flares – eruptions of charged gas or plasma from the Sun – pose an even greater danger, as they would kill anyone unshielded in their path.

Neil Armstrong and the other Apollo astronauts spent only ten days in space on their trips to the Moon in the 1960s and 1970s, and were lucky in that no solar flare came their way while they were in space.

On the ISS, astronauts protect themselves against flares by moving into a special thick-walled room, but such barrier shielding would be impractical for a mission to Mars.

Now scientists at the Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire are proposing a Star Trek solution: to protect the spacecraft with magnetic field like the Earth’s. A team led by Ruth Bamford has been awarded a £30000 grant by the Science and Technology Council to start developing such a scheme. It will use technology originally developed for experimental nuclear fusion reactors to wrap a model spacecraft in a magnetic cocoon, so that harmful plasma bounces off.

Magnetic shield generators could be critical to NASA’s plans to establish a permanent manned base on the Moon by 2024, and to send astronauts to Mars around 2030. Artificially generated magnetic fields are already used in experimental fusion reactors to keep superheated plasma from touching its walls, which would otherwise melt. “What we want to do is the opposite,” Dr Bamford said. “In fusion, the aim is to keep plasma in. We want to keep it out.”

The team is currently setting an experiment at Manchester University, where it will use magnets to try to deflect a one-metre beam of plasma. “We have already tried with a little magnet, but while that deflects it a bit it doesn’t keep the plasma off,” Dr Bamford said. “All the components that we need for this already exist. It is a matter of design and engineering to put them together.

 

I. Match the words

shield	окружать
fusion	оборачивать
wrap	синтез
bounce off	экран, щит
envelop	отскакивать

 

II. Write a short summary of this text

III. You are a third year student of Manchester University. Speak on your current research dealing with magnetic shields.

 

Заключение

 

Учебное пособие разработано преподавателями кафедры “Английский язык для машиностроительных специальностей” в соответствии с требованиями государственного стандарта по курсу “Иностранный язык для технических вузов’’.

В учебном пособии рассмотрены актуальные темы для изучения студентами в техническом вузе в рамках тематики «Экология и промышленная безопасность», введена основная лексика, предложены задания по темам “Water Pollution”, “Air Pollution”, “Noise Pollution”, “Safety Engineering”. Представленные материалы модулей готовят студентов к восприятию расширенного курса английского языка соответствующей специализации в МГТУ.

Лексика модулей способствует более глубокому обучению использования языковых навыков, формированию межпредметных связей, развитию интереса и творческого подхода студентов к изучению английского языка и предметов их профессиональной ориентации.

 

Список литературы:

 

1. Мюллер В.К. Полный англо-русский русско-английский словарь. Complete English-Russian Russian-English Dictionary. М.: Эксмо. Библиотека словарей Мюллера, 2015.

2. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Oxford University Press, 2015

3. MAIL Online [Электронный ресурс]: ежедневная газета Великобритании. – Режим доступа - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/article-4031114/Clarifications-corrections.html.

4.  THEGUARDIAN [Электронный ресурс]: ежедневная газета Великобритании. - Режим доступа: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/30/2016-concentration-camp-ice-dance-russian-tv-life-is-beautiful.

5. THE TIMES [Электронный ресурс]: ежедневная газета Великобритании. – режим доступа: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/thousands-of-lotto-accounts-are-hacked-rgs6kwrtb.