Yeah, I think this is the best answer. It also technically means that the Aurora Borealis is just the solar wind bouncing off our deflector shield, which is a pretty badass way to talk about that.
The other example that’s arguable at this point is the magnetic confinement systems inside fusion reactors, which use powerful magnetic fields to constrain the hot plasma, to keep it away from the walls of the reactor. It’s basically the same principle, but in that case it’s actually a human-made field. It still only affects ions, though, which is pretty different from most sci-fi force fields.
Our current “forcefields” are super picky. They refuse to work with anything other than that one thing they were specifically designed for and the list of options is very short.
If you want to deflect things with a magnetic or electric charge, we already have the right kind of “forcefield” for that. However, it’s not exactly the kind of shell you put around a space ship to keep it protected, so even in this limited sense we still have a long way to go. The magnetic field of the Earth directs some of the incoming particles to the poles, which isn’t really ideal if your goal is to deflect all incoming fire.
If you want to protect the ship/planet from physical projectiles, we have no forcefields at all. That sort of stuff is just pure sci-fi at the moment.
Well, technically the earths magnetic field is a force field deflecting solar wind…otherwise we would be toast.
Yeah, I think this is the best answer. It also technically means that the Aurora Borealis is just the solar wind bouncing off our deflector shield, which is a pretty badass way to talk about that.
The other example that’s arguable at this point is the magnetic confinement systems inside fusion reactors, which use powerful magnetic fields to constrain the hot plasma, to keep it away from the walls of the reactor. It’s basically the same principle, but in that case it’s actually a human-made field. It still only affects ions, though, which is pretty different from most sci-fi force fields.
Our current “forcefields” are super picky. They refuse to work with anything other than that one thing they were specifically designed for and the list of options is very short.
If you want to deflect things with a magnetic or electric charge, we already have the right kind of “forcefield” for that. However, it’s not exactly the kind of shell you put around a space ship to keep it protected, so even in this limited sense we still have a long way to go. The magnetic field of the Earth directs some of the incoming particles to the poles, which isn’t really ideal if your goal is to deflect all incoming fire.
If you want to protect the ship/planet from physical projectiles, we have no forcefields at all. That sort of stuff is just pure sci-fi at the moment.