A Magnesium Diboride Superconducting Toroid for Astroparticle Shielding

The interest in magnetic shielding systems to protect crews from the ionizing radiation encountered during long-term missions has recently grown. Several projects have been funded to study superconducting shields. Among the possible solutions, we consider a large superconducting toroid surrounding the habitable module with bending power greater than 5 Tm, together with an end cap toroid to shield the forward part of the spacecraft, while its rear will be passively shielded by the engines, generators, and ancillary equipment. The results of our study suggest that this configuration would be promising if a number of technical issues could be solved. The system must be light, stable, and must safely guarantee an endurance of at least two years. A conductor based on titanium clad MgB2 conductor could fulfill both the weight and stability requirement and, in addition, would overcome the problems related to liquid helium cryogenics.