Will Iron Man’s Ablative Armor hold up against particle storms?

According to the introductory page of Iron Man’s Model 23 Ablative Armor, Tony designed it “for impact-rich environments, like asteroid fields…comet tails…particle storms…” Basically, it’s space armor that’s designed to get hit and send that impact energy away from the wearer.

Of course, those impacts only happen when physical objects hit the suit, such as ice from a comet or rock in an asteroid field. (Since the asteroids in asteroid fields are actually very far apart, it’s much more likely that cosmic dust like those that form planetary rings [and those that become micrometeorites when they enter Earth’s atmosphere] would be a more common threat.) I’ve mentioned the asteroids and comet tails on many occasions in my blogs, but after months of running this site and re-reading the Ablative’s first page dozens of times, the third thing it protects again — particle storms — finally registered.

Particle storms aren’t made of physical objects; they’re made of energy. So why would Tony mention particle storms when talking about a suit specifically designed to sacrifice tiles when hit by physical objects? Did Robin Laws, the co-creator of the armor and writer of these issues, simply think that the words “particle storm” sound cool and science fiction-y and just toss them on the page? I don’t think so, so let’s take a look at why he might have mentioned it.

What Is a Particle Storm?

A particle storm — also known as a solar particle event, solar proton event (SPE), or prompt proton event — is closely related to a solar flare. Solar flares occur when…well, it’s much too complicated for me to understand why they happen…but it is a period of increased activity that causes eruptions near the sun’s surface. The solar flare itself emits radio waves, but it also sends an increase of (mostly) protons hurtling into space on the solar wind. Space weather (yes, it is a thing) such as particle storms endanger astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) with the ionizing radiation they bring.

These particles aren’t usually plentiful enough to have an effect on the Earth’s ionosphere, but a powerful event like a solar flare can change that. This increase can cause light shows similar to the Northern and Southern Lights, but particle storm lights can appear in tropical regions! The primary difference is that the Northern and Southern auroral events are caused by electrons and not protons.

While these lights might be beautiful, particle storms bring additional danger with them. The most common problems associated with solar flares and particle storms involve electronics. Coronal mass ejections like particle storms can disable satellites, resulting in a loss of communications and GPS. Particles can disrupt electronics and lead to blackouts and additional communications failures once they make it through Earth’s atmosphere.

How Would A Typical Iron Man Suit Hold Up?

Solar flares and similar events produce radiation throughout the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves to ionizing radiation such as x-rays and gamma rays. Many of these waves could disrupt the electronic systems in most Iron Man armors. It’s likely that the fantastical forcefield found on Iron Man armors could repel this radiation, but what happens if the forcefield gives out and you’re in the middle of a particle storm? This could easily happen if the forcefield’s energy is used up as it disrupts the initial blast of radiation. [EDIT: I’ve since found that gamma rays cannot be reflected by mirrors or deflected by electric fields. While I’m not sure of the science, it’s possible that a forcefield — if such things existed — wouldn’t be able to stop gamma rays.]

Steel is 99% iron and has an atomic number of 26. A half-inch of steel — a reasonable thickness for a typical iron-based suit that gives our hero his name — only reduces the amount of some gamma radiation by half. An inch would reduce it by a quarter, and so on. As you add steel and the suit becomes more cumbersome, you’re still not reducing gamma rays to a safe level. Even if you trust Tony Stark’s description of the suit in the first Iron Man movie and accept that it’s a nickel-titanium alloy, their atomic numbers of 28 and 22 don’t do any better than steel at stopping cancer-causing gamma radiation.

The Ablative Armor and Particle Storms

You probably see where I’m going with this: The tiles on Iron Man’s Ablative Armor could absorb all forms of radiation before it disrupted the suit’s electronics. These tiles are simply described as “polymer tiles” with no further explanation regarding their composition. The most common usage of polymer chains on Earth is to create plastics, so it’s likely that the tiles are made of plastic.

“But wait a minute,” you might say. “Plastics can’t stop gamma radiation.” That’s what I thought at first, but then a quick Google search found companies such as Ecomass Technologies. Ecomass creates high-density engineered thermoplatics that replace lead in medical equipment and nuclear power plants. One advantage to these plastics is that they can be injected into spaces, while lead must be molded for custom spaces.

“But wait another minute,” I hear you say. “Lead works because it’s so dense, and dense = heavy.” Very true; with an atomic number of 82, lead is the most-common ultra-dense material on Earth. But here’s a quote from the Ecomass site: “One of the central appeals of thermoplastics has been their ability to make parts lighter.” How did they do it? By combining tungsten powder (atomic number 74) in a polymeric matrix. As I understand it (and I really don't!), it’s a heavy metal bound together with an organic polymer matrix. They have created gamma-stopping plastics that are lighter than lead.

So the Ablative Tiles Could Exist?

In real-world applications with our current technology…absolutely not.

Any plastic that can stop gamma rays is certainly close to as heavy as lead thanks to the extremely heavy tungsten powder. You need at least a 3/16” sheet of lead to stop even low-energy gamma waves, and high-energy gamma waves take at least two feet of lead to stop. A sheet of tungsten would have to be slightly thicker. Considering the tiles look much thinner than 3/16”, Axol’s tiles couldn’t help protect against particle storms in the real world. Then again, we don’t know how many tiles deep the armor goes.

But in a comic book world, Tony could probably find a way to create tiles that are lightweight but able to absorb the protons of a particle storm. Ecomass has proven that the process works, even if it’s just in the early stages. Since the smart forcefield on the Ablative Armor can project under the tiles, this absorption would occur without the forcefield using any energy to repel the proton danger. The tiles could even be a vibranium polymeric matrix for all we know…but then they wouldn’t shatter, would they?

So, even in comic universe, tiles that stop gamma particles would be difficult to stop because:

1) If they are plastic polymers, the gamma rays would pass right through.

2) If they are made from polymers containing lead, they are too thin to stop gamma rays.

3) If they contained enough lead to stop even low-energy gamma rays, then the suit would be too heavy to wear.

4) If they were made from a thicker and lighter comic book metal — vibranium would be an obvious choice since its periodic element would be above 121 — then the tiles wouldn’t shatter as designed.

Final Verdict

You could say that I’m cheating by ending with “well, it’s comics, they can come up with any material they want.” But the point of this article is to explain why energy-based particle storms were given as an example with the physical-impact danger of comet tails. We might not be able to do it with today’s technology, but the idea of protecting Tony from energy danger as well as projectiles proves the Ablation Suit is indeed a space armor for all exploratory occasions.