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I was listening to a Science Friday podcast in which the Martian movie was being discussed. The science contributors stated the radiation problems are the biggest issue for Mars exploration.

Reading Magnetic shield could protect spacecraft states that a 1 Tesla magnet would work:

Bamford and colleagues say these results show that a spacecraft could in fact be protected using a bubble just some 100–200 m across. This, they say, would correspond to a magnet of about 1 Tesla, which would be light enough to be transported into space.

How much does a 1 Tesla neodymium magnet weigh on earth?

Could permanent magnets be installed in the Mars habitat and in the seat of the rover?

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    Related: On building future sustainable Mars habitat and How much power would a spacecraft's magnetic shield require? – called2voyage Oct 19 '15 at 18:39
  • Any sintered 1 cm cube neodymium magnet has remanence of 1.0-1.4 Tesla. But it might not be the best idea dragging a permanent magnet around the planet covered in ferromagnetic dust. – TildalWave Oct 19 '15 at 18:51
  • Wow a cube that size would protect a human? Crazy tin foil hat idea: I wonder if that would be a good idea for all of us to carry such a cube on our person? – Chris Oct 19 '15 at 20:34
  • @Chris Dipole magnetic field strength diminishes with inverse cube of distance, so for a 1 cm cube with 1 T at its surface, its field strength would only be 0.125 pT at 200 m. So to get to, say, 0.1 T at 200 m, you'd need a shell of about 92.5 m in radius of such neodymium magnets. Of course, this would do nothing to shield against cosmic radiation (well, it would provide a layer of heavy mass shielding which should attenuate it somehwat, but its magnetic field alone wouldn't deflect high eV particles). – TildalWave Oct 19 '15 at 23:14
  • @TildalWave But a helmet with neodymium magnets (carried in a low gravity environment) would provide great protection for the brain against electrons and ions? – LocalFluff Oct 20 '15 at 01:09
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    @LocalFluff No, because if helmet r = 15 cm then at distance d = 200 m B = (r/d)³ or 0.422 nT if the helmet is covered with 1 T strength neodymium magnets. Either source strength or shielding size would have to be significantly larger. Granted, at d >> r relationship of field strength and distance is closer to inverse square, but even at B = (r/d)² our helmet only has the strength of ~ 0.56 mT. Note that this field strength at distance is directly proportional to how much deflection off their path can you expect of charged particles coming your way (but also depends on their energy levels). – TildalWave Oct 20 '15 at 01:36
  • @TildalWave So, shielding the brain with 1 Tesla at 15 cm radius doesn't help much, because the short range doesn't deflect the particles enough, is that right? – LocalFluff Oct 20 '15 at 01:43
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    @LocalFluff Yes, well, that's my take on it, but you might want to seek a second opinion. :) – TildalWave Oct 20 '15 at 01:47
  • If the hull of the ship had magnets glued to it, I suspect some shielding would be afforded. – Chris Oct 20 '15 at 12:58

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