We are still producing and delivering for our clients read about our COVID-19 response   |  Learn More

Utilizing Technology to Avert Catastrophic Events One Shield at a Time

Solar-Flares December 8, 2017

We promise we’re not extreme doomsday preppers or anything over here at MuShield, but, we do find it interesting when “potential” catastrophic events pop up in our newsfeed that are related (albeit loosely) to some of the work we do. And, while we utilize the features section of our site to put a spotlight on many of the products we create and customers we’ve successfully helped, we thought it might be fun to take a step outside of the box for a moment. Let’s pretend it’s a magnetic shielding box, eh?

Today, we’re going to talk about solar flares. But not the common solar flare that happens quite frequently. No, we’re going to talk about epic solar flares that have the potential to wipe out much of our technologically driven existence.

Last month a number of national (and heck, international) outlets reported on the “what ifs” of a potential large scale solar flare. The storm that all of these outlets referenced was the ginormous flare of 1859 called Carrington Event which caused huge auroras to “paint the sky in Technicolor” as far south as Cuba and Hawaii. The solar flare resulted in telegraph operators worldwide to experience physical shock due to spark discharges, before their machines completely burst into flames. I mean, that’s just basic old school telephones we’re talking about… If the Carrington event occurred today, we’re looking at widespread tech outage, or, as www.digitaltrends.com calls it, a “techpacolypse.”

We hear your murmur loud and clear – “what the heck are you talking about?”

An event like Carrington happening in the modern day world would wipe out satellite communications, destroy power stations, and thus completely upend the very digital infrastructure we’ve built our day-to-day lives around. The cost to repair such damages is estimated at $10 trillion dollars worldwide, and would take 4-10 years to get back to where things stood at the point of impact.

It’s no joke.

WIRED even made the claim (based on scientific research and evidence) that such a storm has a 1 in 8 chance of occurring before 2020. 1 in 8! That’s serious. That’s within the next 2 years…

Okay, again, we hear you… You get the threat, but don’t understand how this relates to MuShield. We’re getting there… slowly.

The reason these articles started finding their way into our emails, and hence, collective psyche is because Digital Trends reported that proposals have been presented to offset the damage of solar storms by, in short, utilizing the technology of magnetic shielding and launching a (MASSIVE) outer space magnetic solution.

In Digital Trends article it reads:

“The basic idea is to place a current loop between the Sun and the Earth that supplies sufficient magnetic field to deflect the incoming charged particles from the Sun,” Lingam said. “The shield appears to be feasible even within the limits of our current technology, although it would undoubtedly be a costly undertaking.”

But there is, naturally, a catch. The loop would weigh in at around 100,000 tons, according to the researchers’ calculations, and would cost some $100 billion to launch. That’s about the price of the International Space Station.

Read the whole thing here.

Can you imagine? While the prospect seems unlikely, it’s still a concept we get giddy about. The magnetic shields we build here on earth are but a microcosmic study when it comes to something of this magnitude. Protecting our planet from atmospheric charge with a larger-than-life version of the product we create on a daily basis? Oh, boy. You start the GoFundMe campaign to raise the capital, we’ll invest in some Bit Coins, and then we’ll get to work.

< Return To Updates