Science Behind Shields?

Avago Earo · May 14, 2015

After reading a couple of threads discussing aerodynamics in space and in ship sound simulation and all the ideas floating around it got me thinking.

What is the stance on shields? How do they work? I remember as a kid in the seventies TV sci-fi programmes with 'Force Fields' in them but no explanation. Maybe it is similar to the magnetic poles on Earth deflecting some of the Solar energy (ship shield deflections do look a bit like the Northern/Southern Lights), and lasers (I WILL be corrected on this I'm sure) being photon energy would explain this a bit but what about 'solid' weapons? Surely they would go straight through unhampered with maybe electrical homing circuits scrambled but already so close to the target to make no difference.

I don't know anything on these sort of things, BBC documentaries aside, so spare the flame thrower

Cheers!

babelfisch · May 14, 2015

I think you can get module malfunctions when getting fired upon with kinetic weapons.

yyy · May 14, 2015

Shields would be an extremely hot plasma that melts projectiles on contact. A magnetic field can contain the plasma. Don't know how photons/electromagnetic waves would be affected by a plasma though. Might do some reading up on that....

Update....Did some reading up on science papers. There is some basis for lasers hitting a plasma. Its been tried. To cut a long story short plasmas would reflect and/or absorb the radiation from a laser until the plasma can take no more and it collapses like in ED. Of course there are lots more details to it, but lets keep it simple for the masses.

Another Update....Given that a magnetic field holds your plasma-based shield together, if a ship with a more powerful magnetic field scrapes past it might disrupt or collapse your shield altogether.

Sgt Doom · May 14, 2015

Magic energy thingy wot stops bad things happening

Avago Earo · May 14, 2015

yyy said:
Shields would be an extremely hot plasma that melts projectiles on contact. Don't know how photons/electromagnetic waves would be affected by a plasma though. Might do some reading up on that....

Yeah I was wondering about that. I'm not too 'sciency' but I guess reading up on it is a less lazy way to find out

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Sgt Doom said:
Magic energy thingy wot stops bad things happening

Yeah, that's how I see it so far. Cheers!

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babelfisch said:
I think you can get module malfunctions when getting fired upon with kinetic weapons.[/QU

For sure, but I was wondering how shields are supposed to work.

CMDR C.A.M. · May 14, 2015

I always thought of them as a mix of different "fields", IIRC in Mass Effect there was a pseudo-scientific explanation for deflector shields based on a combination of gravitational fields (which we do not have in E

anyway) to deflect solid projectiles and EM fields for energy weapons.

Avago Earo · May 14, 2015

CMDR C.A.M. said:
I always thought of them as a mix of different "fields", IIRC in Mass Effect there was a pseudo-scientific explanation for deflector shields based on a combination of gravitational fields (which we do not have in E anyway) to deflect solid projectiles and EM fields for energy weapons.

Ok that's interesting. I'll look that stuff up. I wonder what Frontier have to say?

Morbad · May 14, 2015

Avago Ero said:
For sure, but I was wondering how shields are supposed to work.

They aren't.

Closest practical thing we can conceive of is a plasma window, and even if we could create fully enclosing plasma envelopes with the properties of a plasma window, it still wouldn't be able to do half the things shields in ED or most other sci-fi that feature shields could.

As far as plausible explanations go, "it''s magic" is about it. Of course, in 1300 years, plenty of every day things could seem like magic to our current understanding.

CMDR C.A.M. said:
I always thought of them as a mix of different "fields", IIRC in Mass Effect there was a pseudo-scientific explanation for deflector shields based on a combination of gravitational fields (which we do not have in E anyway) to deflect solid projectiles and EM fields for energy weapons.

Which is all magic.

bisador · May 14, 2015

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/...make-star-wars-deflector-shields-in-real-life

Plasma held in place by big ol' magnets... works pretty well but with a few limitations... so still a bit of fiction and "don't ask" yet

Shaele · May 14, 2015

Morbad said:
They aren't.

Closest practical thing we can conceive of is a plasma window, and even if we could create fully enclosing plasma envelopes with the properties of a plasma window, it still wouldn't be able to do half the things shields in ED or most other sci-fi that feature shields could.

As far as plausible explanations go, "it''s magic" is about it. Of course, in 1300 years, plenty of every day things could seem like magic to our current understanding.

Which is all magic.

1300 years ago at least half of what we take for granted today would have been considered magic and got you burnt at the stake if you were very lucky - in another 1300 years who knows what life will be like.

Avago Earo · May 14, 2015

Excellent replies folks cheers. So far I'm erring towards the 'it's magic' idea seasoned with 'theoretically, in the future it could be done' knowing what theoretically actually means to boot

.

I will still wonder about this and maybe there is a scientific study explaining this but I'm lazy and I'll wait for Brian Cox to do it with some nice graphics. Unless someone on these forums can.

It's a game play thing isn't it.

Iori · May 14, 2015

A Wizard made them.

There is your explanation.

Avago Earo · May 14, 2015

So 'magic' seems to be the concensus

Simon853 · May 14, 2015

If their operation could be explained scientifically, that would bear up to scrutiny without any "insert bit of magic here" parts, then surely we could all go out today and build them for our cars? It's science-fiction, or to be more precise: science-fantasy.

yyy · May 14, 2015

Simon853 said:
If their operation could be explained scientifically, that would bear up to scrutiny without any "insert bit of magic here" parts, then surely we could all go out today and build them for our cars? It's science-fiction, or to be more precise: science-fantasy.

Still good to discuss what might be possible. I remember as a child getting books from the library that predicted the types of cars we might have by 2000. So you pull into a service station and they swap out the batteries for you. Only now have electric vehicles been mass-produced, albeit more polluting and toxic than the internal combustion engine, but the intent is there to improve.

Iori · May 14, 2015

I get really mad when in Sci-fi shows or movies they waste so much time with technobabble that even a small kid can tell is bull, just to try to fool you into thinking those things are actually possible, I'd rather not have an explanation and have them concentrate on telling a story.

The explanation rather than helping, it breaks the suspension of disbelief, cause it actually makes you think about how much they are bullting you.

A very good example of this would be Star Wars. In the originals you are introduced to the concept of the force, you know it is there and what it does, then they made the precuels and ruined the force by trying to explain it with the midiclorians crap.

Psycho Romeo · May 14, 2015

So, is the Friendship Drive at all related to the Magic Shield Generator?

What happens to our Magic Shield when we engage our Friendship Drive?

It's refilled right?

There must be a connection but I can't put my finger on it.

mnemon · May 14, 2015

Simon853 said:
If their operation could be explained scientifically, that would bear up to scrutiny without any "insert bit of magic here" parts, then surely we could all go out today and build them for our cars? It's science-fiction, or to be more precise: science-fantasy.

There are a lot of things we could do if we had a megawatt range reactor that would fit inside a car, that said I'm not aware of any actual theories on how you could make a compact shield that blocks both kinetic projectiles and laser weaponry.

1300 years of poking at subatomic particles and other fundamental building blocks of reality might yield some interesting results though.

Skuli · May 14, 2015

The only real technological breakthrough in Elite Dangerous seems to be the frameshift drive; the rest is standard physics.

I'd wager the shielding utilizes the same technology as the frameshift drive, but in a fashion that redirects the thermal and kinetic energy rather than absorbing it.

Don't think of it as the shield blocking the attack; the shield frameshifts the incoming projectiles/beams to some empty section of space possibly tens of thousands of light years away, or simply sends them directly into witchspace, never to be seen again.

Comrade Napoleon · May 14, 2015

babelfisch said:
I think you can get module malfunctions when getting fired upon with kinetic weapons.

People can too, actually

Cheers Cmdr's