IS ENOUGH BEING DONE TO SAVE EARTH FROM A CATASTROPHIC SOLAR STORM?

Space safety experts are starting to raise some serious questions about just how prepared humanity is to tackle an impending calamitous solar storm that could see the end of Earth as we know it.

As Earth’s magnetic poles continue to shift, the likelihood of a solar storm hitting the planet is becoming greater – and the effects would be dire for humanity.

Writing in the latest issue of ROOM - The Space Journal, Joseph N Pelton, an executive board member of the International Association of Space Safety (IAASS) and former dean of the International Space University (ISU), said: “We humans, in fact, have become somewhat complacent about the natural protective systems that our six-sextillion ton spacecraft has to protect us from – solar storms, asteroids and cosmic rays.

“Over the course of the last half century, the world has finally begun to learn that a massive asteroid or comet strike could create havoc and ruin, on perhaps a planetary scale.

“But what we don’t have is a global understanding that there is a much more likely danger that is increasing over time and is a very real cosmic danger that could knock out our electric power grids, kill key satellite systems for communications and navigation and defence.

“This cosmic menace could knock out the time synchronization of the global Internet which is essential for it to continue to function day in, day out.

“A massive coronal mass ejection that brings millions of tons of ions travelling perhaps at two million kilometres an hour, similar to the Carrington Event of 1859, might leave the world’s economic systems and global infrastructure in shambles.”
The question now being asked by leading scientists is how to create a mega-structure which could save humanity from a massive solar storm by creating an artificial Van Allen electro-magnetic shield to protect Earth.

Such a structure could also be multi-functional, incorporating solar power satellites to beam back clean energy to Earth and acting as a way-station for efficient transportation to other points in the solar system such as the Moon, Mars or asteroids.

Joseph continues: “It is time for those leading our space agencies to consider what technologies they might conceive and implement to save Earth and the human race. To put not too fine a point on it, now is the time for them to start doing their truly core mission to save Earth.’

ROOM is a space magazine for an international, modern, forward-thinking audience. Our authors report directly from the heart of the matter - they are experts, aerospace industry leaders and scientists from all over the world. At ROOM, we share a common dream - promotion of peaceful exploration of space for the benefit of humankind, all while bringing you incisive articles on a variety of trending topics, from the latest breakthroughs in astronautics to the environmental challenges of exploring space, from security threats originating in space to the untold history behind famous space missions.

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This release was published on openPR.