Were it not for its handy deflector shields, the Starship Enterprise's continuing mission in the science-fiction world of Star Trek would have lasted about five minutes, a victim of cosmic rays and Klingon disrupters.

Now scientists in the real world want to investigate whether a Star Trek-style radiation shield around a spaceship could protect astronauts travelling to Mars and beyond.

An artificial magnetosphere could be generated around a manned space craft en route to the moon or Mars to protect occupants from potentially lethal radiation from the sun.
(Courtesy: Royal Astronomical Society/Rutherford Appleton Laboratory)

Scientists at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire are set to construct an experimental magnetic shield for spaceships, one that would mimic the way Earth's own magnetosphere protects us from high energy particles like cosmic rays and the solar wind.

Such a device would be necessary for long space missions, according to researcher Ruth Bamford, who presented the idea on Wednesday at the Royal Astronomical Society National Astronomy Meeting in the U.K.

"Unless you solve this [radiation] problem, you're going to have a bunch of dead astronauts," Bamford told the BBC.

Cosmic rays are mostly made up of fast, positively charged ions — atoms that have lost an electron — that are expelled from stellar objects and fly through the universe. Exposure to them or to radiation from the sun itself can cause acute radiation sickness in astronauts and can be lethal.

Astronauts on the International Space Station go to special compartments with heavy shielding during periods of increased solar radiation. But the added weight of such shielding would add to the fuel costs required to lift such a ship into orbit en route to the moon or Mars, Bamford said.

It's believed the Earth owes its magnetosphere to the movement of super-hot molten iron in the planet's core that combines with the planet's rotation to create the somewhat spherical magnetic field lines and two poles close to the geographical poles of the planet.

For a spaceship to generate a mini-magnetosphere would require the expertise of fusion scientists experienced with creating and controlling magnetic fields inside reactors, Bamford told the BBC.

Three years ago U.S. President George W. Bush announced a plan to return astronauts to the moon by 2020, followed by a mission to Mars. NASA has already announced a plan to establish a moon base by 2024.

Because a mission to Mars would take much longer than a trip to the space station or the moon, scientists have become increasingly concerned about astronaut safety, especially in the event of an intense burst of radiation from a solar flare.

Last month scientists at NASA's Langely Research Center proposed the use of a lighter material, called graphite nanofibre, enriched with light hydrogen atoms that would help block radiation without making ships prohibitively heavy.

The NASA scientists made their presentation at a meeting of the American Physical Society in Denver, Colo.