A female physicist invents a new fusion rocket that could take the first humans to Mars

Dr. Fatima Ebrahimi, who works at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), has invented a new fusion rocket that could one day take humans to Mars.

The device uses magnetic fields to shoot plasma particles from the back of the rocket and propel the vessel through space.

The use of magnetic fields allows scientists to adapt the amount of thrust for a specific mission and astronauts change the amount of thrust as they fly to distant worlds.

Ebrahimi’s innovation would also bring the heroes of the space fairing to the red planet 10 times faster than current rocket propellants that use electric fields to propel particles.

“I’ve been cooking this concept for a long time,” Ebrahimi said.

“I had the idea in 2017 while sitting on a deck and thinking about the similarities between a car’s exhaust and high-speed exhaust particles.”

“During its operation, this tokamak produces magnetic bubbles called plasmoids that move at about 20 kilometers per second, which I found very pushy.”

Fusion is the power that drives the sun and stars and combines light elements in the form of plasma.

Plasma is the hot, charged state of matter composed of free electrons and atomic nuclei that accounts for 99% of the visible universe and is capable of generating large amounts of energy.

Scientists have been working 24 hours a day to replicate the fusion in a laboratory in hopes of harnessing its power to produce electricity for rockets traveling through deep space.

Current plasma propellants that use electric fields to propel particles can only produce a low specific velocity or impulse.

But computer simulations performed on PPPL computers and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, a user center in the DOE’s science office at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, showed that the new propellant concept of plasma can generate leaks at speeds of hundreds of kilometers per hour. second, ten times faster than those of other engines.

This faster speed at the start of a spacecraft’s journey could bring the outer planets within reach of astronauts, Ebrahimi said.

“Long-distance travel takes months or years because the specific thrust of chemical rocket engines is very low, so the boat takes a while to catch up,” he said.

“But if we make drives based on magnetic reconnection, we could perform long-range missions in a shorter period of time.”

While the use of fusions to power rockets is not a new concept, the Ebrahimi propeller differs from main devices in three ways.

The first is that changing the strength of magnetic fields can increase or decrease the amount of thrust, which will allow for better maneuvering across the dark abyss that is space.

“By using more electromagnets and more magnetic fields, you can actually turn a knob to adjust the speed,” Ebrahimi said.

Second, the new propellant produces motion by expelling plasma particles and magnetic bubbles known as plasmoids.

Plasmoids provide power to propulsion and no other propellant concept incorporates them.

However, the last difference between Ebrahimi’s concept and others is that his uses magnetic fields to shoot plasma particles from the back of the rocket, space-tested devices that use electric fields.

The use of magnetic fields can change the game, as it allows scientists to adjust the amount of thrust for a particular mission.

“While other propellants require heavy gas, composed of atoms like xenon, in this concept you can use any type of gas you want,” Ebrahimi said. Scientists may prefer light gas in some cases because smaller atoms can move faster.