A Plan to Stop Solar Storms From Sending Us Back to the Stone Age

StormWall, which involves school-bus-size satellites and a whole lot of salt, could provide an ionic ‘air bag’ for the EarthIt’s the year 2040, and the Big One—a civilization-smashing solar storm of a scale not seen since the 19th century—is on a collision course with Earth.Far out in space, where geostationary satellites orbit, a half-dozen school-bus-size satellites crack open and start dumping barium, lithium or sodium. Within minutes, sunlight transforms this material into an ionized gas shield that slows the oncoming massive blob of plasma.Down on our planet’s surface, a would-be global catastrophe—potentially knocking out entire electrical grids—is reduced to a...