Can NASA Save Us From Solar Storms?

With The Toughest Spacecraft Ever Built?

I have a confession to make: I’m addicted to electricity. I can’t stop using it. Not a day goes by where I’m not turning on a light or charging my phone or transforming water from liquid into a solid through the irresistible power of electricity.

And if I’m being totally honest, you should know that I was using electricity throughout the writing of this article.

I’d go as far to say that the widespread availability of electricity is one of my favorite features of the modern world. It’s in my top ten, easily.

But the Sun could take it way it at any time.

And NASA might be the only thing that can save us.

Space has its own weather — just like we have on good ol’ planet earth — except instead of cloudbursts and cold fronts, space has solar flares and coronal mass ejections. The sun is shedding charged particles of plasma out into the solar system all the time — this is the solar wind. They usually do nothing more than create psychedelic light shows over the north and south poles. This is because the Earth’s magnetic field acts as kind of shield of force field, guiding these high energy particles away from the surface. That’s what you’re seeing when you see the northern lights.