Electromagnetic Shielding of Space Craft?

If an electromagnetic fields seem to stop most cosmic radiation. How come Nasa cant fit some sort of helix type generator to the space craft to stop ionizing radiation penertrating the space craft? Or is that to impractical.
- Paul Rogers (age 23)
Auckland, New Zealand

I'm afraid that your last sentence is correct:  It's too impractical.   Another thing is that many of the harmful cosmic rays are electrically neutral, like gamma rays, that are not bent at all by a magnetic field.  So, it's complicated.   Many people, most of all the astronauts,  are interested in this problem and there is much ink spilled in the discussions.  To get a taste of the arguments, Google  " shielding ISS "  and thumb through some of the entries.

LeeH

(published on 08/17/2009)