~or~

Whatever you say bounces off of me and back onto you.

OUCH!

Force fields have been a science fiction dream since before Gene Roddenberry conceived his “Wagon Train to the Stars” (Star Trek) in the mid 1960s. The ability to stop energy rays comes in handy not only for rogue Klingons or Romulans, but because of the inherent dangers of outer space itself.

Wait… What? KIRK as a Romulan?

Once we leave Earth’s amazingly protective magnetic field, the beyond is filled with hard radiation, meteorites, and particles—that when impacted at high speeds might as well be bricks. In T.G. Franklin’s novel, Heavenfall, “2027 – Earth is in the path of a raging cosmic storm, and most people believe Hadrian’s energy web will protect the planet from the destruction of the wave.”  However the web has its own side effects and consequences.

In the Tethered Worlds universe, radiation protection is accomplished with cold, warm, and hot plasma shielding. Cold plasma can be generated by devices worn on the forearm. It is invisible and harmless to the touch, but quite effective against radiation. It’s the main reason we don’t see use of laser pistols and such.

However, cold plasma does nothing to stop projectiles. Warm and hot plasma are required for that, and serious machinery not suited to personal protection. It’s relegated to spaceships and such. But any shielding has limits, be it the armor on a WWII battleship or the Perigeum’s destroyers in Tethered Worlds.

Long term spaceflight needs to address hard radiation, for every ship cannot be built with six inches of protective lead… and the titanic amounts of extra mass it comes with.

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Gregory Faccone hopes you will get the lead out and go on a fantastic romp through space in the Tethered Worlds series. It is hard radiation and micro-meteorite free!