The high energy protons of the Solar Cosmic Rays (SCR) are by far the most
dangerous for the health of the astronauts in manned flights outside the pr
otection of the Earth magnetic field. However, since the astronauts are in
any case protected by the walls of the spaceship, only protons with kinetic
energy exceeding 20 MeV must be taken into consideration. They have a smal
l dispersion around the direction of the solar wind, what makes easier the
protection against their action because absorber's of adequate thickness ca
n be located in the side of their arrival direction. The mass of the requir
ed absorber rapidly increases with the energy of the proton, and is already
1,400 kg/m(2) for stopping protons of 500 MeV. It is therefore necessary t
o have recourse to the use of magnetic superconducting lenses for defocussi
ng the beam of the arriving protons and protect the astronauts behind them.
It is presented and discussed a scheme of toroidal lens protecting a volum
e of 10 m(2) cross section at all energies of interest and weighing a few h
undred kg. It is presented the program for developing a prototype of such a
lens to be validated on board of the International Space Station and for s
ending an interplanetary probe for mapping the characteristics of the high
energy SCR from Earth to Mars and correlating them with the solar activity
phenomena.