Thursday, 9 February 2012

Ten Things the Future will hold! (3)

3. Forcefields

"Remember - you can't beam through a force field. So, don't try it."
-William Shatner

Another invention I think the future will amaze us with is forcefields - no longer needing to protect ourselves with great barriers made of strengthened material but invisible shields.
So far there are a couple of different ideas which will progress into the reality of forcefields in the future, these are:
-1. Producing a strong but momentary electromagnetic field:

The military are working on a type of forcefield which aims to prevent incoming shrapnel, small missiles and grenades from military vehicles and the like. This is achieved by incorporating supercapacitors in the material of the object you are trying to protect. The vast amounts of energy that these 'supercapacitors' can hold can be released into the material quickly creating a really powerful electromagnetic field which if timed right could repel the incoming projectiles.
Deploying this 'electric armor' would decrease the weight of armour need for military vehicles so the vehicles would be subsequently lighter.

-2. Using a laser lattice.
A laser lattice is a more 'sci-fi' option as this would most likely be deployed on spacecraft - but hypothetically ...
A laser lattice with strong enough laser beams could be used to vaporise large enough inbound projectiles.


This isn't really a forcefield as such however would work as one and be as effective. A smaller layer of lasers or a bullet-proof material could be used behind the lattice so that smaller projectiles do not get through.

-3. Using electromagnetic fields ... again.

Ok - this is just the same as the first one but it has a different purpose.
This idea focuses on on of the key aspects of electromagnetism - like charges repel. This type of forcefield could be used to block radiation and particles that come from outer space that could potentially harm people, most of the radiation  that comes from  outer space consists of these particles.

By knowing the charge of these particles we can know how to repel them ... right?
(positive-positive, negative-negative)
So surely if we create a field with these properties we can use it to repel it's respective charged particle. This could be used on the moon or other planets/moons without a strong magnetosphere (or without a magnetosphere at all). These types of forcefields could be put to great use as the alternative way to block radiation is by using a huge structure made out of concrete or another radiation blocking substance.

Hopefully the areas of science needed for each of these methods will be further explored and the technology with be developed to help us create these forcefields.
Bit of a short post but thanks, Chris.

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