With SpaceX continuing the testing phase of Starship and the excitement that extends to a manned flight to Mars, an interesting concept of magnetic-propelled rocket designed by physicist Fatima Ebrahimi of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory ( PPPL) from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) could make the mission much more cost-effective.
The viability of safe and sustainable propulsion systems that surpass traditional chemical-based rocket engines in deep space travel, not only in our own solar system, but someday perhaps toward a distant galaxy off the Way Dairy, is mostly in the minds of astrophysicists.
Ion thrusters, once the standard acceleration mode for imaginative science fiction authors and now the preferred positioning engine for NASA scientists and engineers on their satellites, can have greater endurance and be much cheaper to operate, but generate a minimal amount of acceleration purposes. This is not exactly a viable option for a trip to the red planet, where hundreds of tons of spacecraft move across the sky.
Ebrahimi’s Princeton team has developed a new concept that involves using the same basic cosmic mechanism that helps push sunlight toward our Sun. These violent eruptions are made up of charged atoms and particles known as plasma, which are trapped inside intense magnetic fields. Their findings were published in the online research site, Journal of Plasma Physics.
To harness this dynamic energy in an efficient propulsion system, Ebrahimi focuses on a type of interaction called magnetic reconnection, which is where magnetic fields in heavily charged plasma environments are automatically restructured to converge, separate, and reconnect. converge.
The consequences of this cyclic reaction are an impressive power of kinetic energy, thermal energy and particle acceleration. This phenomenon is not limited to stars, but also occurs in our planet’s atmosphere and Tokamak fusion reactors, such as the PPPL National Spherical Torus Experiment.
This innovative propellant produces motion by expelling plasma particles and magnetic bubbles known as plasmoids, which increase the propulsion power.
“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,” Ebrahimi explains. “But if we do propellants based on magnetic reconnection, we could do long-range missions in a shorter period of time. While other propellants require heavy gas, composed of atoms like xenon, in this concept you can use any type of gas. you want.”
A magnetic propellant works in the same way as modern ion propellants, which are increasingly common in a wide range of probes and spacecraft. They work by charging a propellant base made up of heavy atoms such as xenon, introducing an electric field and accelerating them. According to Ebrahmi’s intriguing concept, magnetic fields are recruited for acceleration work.
Currently, computer simulations derived from PPPL computers and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, indicate that magnetic reconnection propellants can theoretically manufacture exhaust velocities ten times faster than systems. electric propulsion systems currently in use.
“This work was inspired by past fusion work and this is the first time plasmoids and reconnection for space propulsion have been proposed,” Ebrahimi added. “The next step is to build a prototype!”