Topic: M2P2 propulsion system protoype testing

[Stormbringer]

http://www.ess.washington.edu/Space/M2P2/

http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/advanced_propulsion_020522-1.html

http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/m2p2_winglee_010621.html

http://www.ess.washington.edu/Space/M2P2/M2P2.exe

http://www.ess.washington.edu/Space/M2P2/news.html

http://www.ess.washington.edu/Space/M2P2/technical.html

http://www.ess.washington.edu/Space/M2P2/theory.html

http://www.geophys.washington.edu/Space/Movies/


Solar Windsurfing: The Fastest-Ever Propulsion
By Robin Lloyd
Science Editor
posted: 10:50 am ET
21 June 2001

 

A technology that uses a magnetic balloon to sail ionized particles shed by the Sun could speed humans to the Jovian moons in less than two years and push a probe past Voyager 1 to become the first spacecraft beyond our Solar System.

[inset]

The low-cost Mini-Magnetosphere Plasma Propulsion, or M2P2, propels spacecraft at speeds far greater than today's chemical and even ion propulsion systems, and its magnetic-field sail would even protect travelers from deadly solar and Jovian radiation.

"The technology seeks to do what space does -- deploy a magnetized sail to travel with the winds," says University of Washington scientist Robert Winglee, who came up with the idea after 10 years as a geophysicist studying Earth inside and out to its radiation environment. The Sun is constantly shedding high-speed particles, called the solar wind, that race out from it at speeds averaging 800,000 mph (400 km/sec).

If M2P2 were used for a mission to the Jovian moon Europa, it would take only 1.5 years to arrive. Using conventional chemical propulsion, such a trip could take 5 years.

Other technologies also are designed to sail the solar wind, but they rely on a lightweight material that could be penetrated by meteors. Winglee's magnetic fields would operate unperturbed by meteors.

How it works

The M2P2 sail starts with an eight-inch magnet that creates a tiny magnetic field. That field is expanded like a balloon by filling it with an inert gas split into electrons and ionized particles. That superheated gas, called plasma, then is amped up by a solenoid that acts as a switch to create a larger magnetic field.

The magnetic "balloon" eventually can inflate around a spacecraft to create magnetic field lines reaching as far as 25 miles (40 kilometers) across. The solar wind then "blows" against the large bubble to propel the spacecraft, with the sail acting like an umbrella braced against a bad storm. Only in this case, the umbrella loses and the spacecraft can put away up to 4.3 million miles a day.

The system can make a craft travel at speeds 10 times as fast as the space shuttle, up to 180,000 mph (50 km/sec). At that rate, an M2P2 spacecraft could catch up with Voyager 1, currently the furthest man-made object in space at 7.5 billion miles (12 billion kilometers) from Earth, before it reaches the edge of the Solar System.

How to get back

For human travelers who prefer to return to Earth rather than live in space perpetually, Winglee says M2P2 basically could be used as an engine to "tack" the solar wind like a sailboat tacks the terrestrial winds.

By angling the spacecraft and altering its speed relative to the Sun, you could use the wind to either push a craft away from the Sun or allow the Sun's gravity to suck the craft back in.

Honors and the new millennium

Winglee was honored this month by Discover Magazine for his aerospace innovation, along with seven other inventors.

SPACE.com Founder Lou Dobbs introduced Winglee at the ceremony, saying, "This technology may enable us to establish a permanent presence in space, something existing technologies will not allow us to do."

There are hopes that M2P2 soon will be used on a couple smaller experiments or even missions in NASA's New Millennium Program, which focuses on speeding up space exploration by validating new technologies in flight.

The tech readiness scale

Hoppy Price, manager of solar sail tech development at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, sits on a committee that evaluates technology proposals for New Millennium missions.

"It's a neat concept," he said of M2P2. "It has a lot of potential but it's also very early in the research phase."

"Most of the solar sail technologies we are looking at now are at tech readiness level four, which means we have some laboratory demonstrations of the technology," he said. M2P2 is at a lower level of readiness for the moment, he said, although fast development of prototypes and testing could make it available for use in some of the approaching New Millennium missions, such as Space Technology 7.

[Stormbringer]

The beginning of field propulsion. the incubator of the tech that will lead to space metric modification drives like the alcubierre variants.

[Commander Maxillius]

Exactly what I thought when I read the part about the field lines!!


However, if something on board is creating a magnetic field, then there will be no need for a sail, just use the field itself as the sail to propel the craft.

[Nemesis]

I haven't read through all the links yet so perhaps this is already covered.

Earlier I read about a hybrid concept that might be used to make a more advanced version of this.  The idea was to have a plasma drive combined with the magnetic sail.  The plasma drive would provide accelration.  Then the  plasma would be blown back towards the ship by the suns light pressure and get trapped in the sail.  Trapping the plasma would extract energy for propulsion.  Continued light pressure on the plasma would accelerate the ship as well as the plasma.  The magnetic sail would of course also affect the solar wind as specified in your current article.

The design I read about at that time envisioned using super conducting wires in a ring or fan shape around the ship to form the magnetic field.  By controlling the strength of the magnetic field in sections of the sail tacking would be easy.  The shape of the sail was to be maintained by interaction between the various magnetic fields.

[Stormbringer]

in this one a relatively small magnet creates a magnetic field which expands to up to 25 miles in diameter due to plasma injection. the solar wind pushes the charged plasma and field the same way earths magnetic field is pushed by the solar wind. there is no physical sail to mess up.

[Nemesis]

in this one a relatively small magnet creates a magnetic field qhich eapands to up to 25 miles in diameter due to plasma injection. the solar wind pushes the charged plasma and field the same way earths magnetic field is pussed by the solar wind. there is no physical sail to mess up.

The potential for the other is much larger sails - 100s of miles in diameter.  Most of the sail is also empty space, unlike the "standard" solar sail concept so it is both lighter in weight and lower in potential to be damaged.

The dual drive plasma drive and magnetic sail would increase acceleration even if the plasma drive was high specific impulse but low rate of exhaust like an ion drive.  The recaptured plasma then acts as a solar sail as well.  Solar wind + plasma + solar sail functions + larger sails = increased acceleration and shorter trip times.  Construction cost is higher of course but offset by shorter trip times resulting in less consumables for manned voyages.

[NJAntman]

Sounds like the Warshowski Sail and gravity waves from a certain sci-fi series.

[Stormbringer]

I wonder if  the thing can be sped up with increased ionisation, snapping field lines or a larger magnetic bubble? a year and a half to the gas giant moons is still far too long...

[prometheus]

I wonder if  the thing can be sped up with increased ionisation, snapping field lines or a larger magnetic bubble? a year and a half to the gas giant moons is still far too long...

I'm not so sure... I think there will be explorers intrepid enough to attempt a four or five year round trip to the gas giants...

[Nemesis]

I wonder if  the thing can be sped up with increased ionisation, snapping field lines or a larger magnetic bubble? a year and a half to the gas giant moons is still far too long...

I'm not so sure... I think there will be explorers intrepid enough to attempt a four or five year round trip to the gas giants...

Fine for exploration.  Not so good for commercial activities.

[Stormbringer]

Sounds like the Warshowski Sail and gravity waves from a certain sci-fi series.

well scince fiction has often predicted actual technology.

[prometheus]

I wonder if  the thing can be sped up with increased ionisation, snapping field lines or a larger magnetic bubble? a year and a half to the gas giant moons is still far too long...

I'm not so sure... I think there will be explorers intrepid enough to attempt a four or five year round trip to the gas giants...

Fine for exploration.  Not so good for commercial activities.

There are plenty of Earth based commercial activities that take years to see returns on...

[Stormbringer]

ah! The Euros have found a way to perhaps double the propulsive effect. it seems to me that if you had this going on in the plasma shell of the M2P2 system it should increase the reactive force perhaps even double or more. thought this  application works differently in principle, it should be adaptable.

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/rocketscience-05zzzb.html


ESA Accelerates Towards A New Space Thruster

Helicon reactor in operation. Credits: LPTP, Ecole Polytechnique.
Paris (ESA) Dec 14, 2005
ESA has confirmed the principle of a new space thruster that may ultimately give much more thrust than today's electric propulsion techniques. The concept is an ingenious one, inspired by the northern and southern aurorae, the glows in the sky that signal increased solar activity.
"Essentially the concept exploits a natural phenomenon we see taking place in space,” says Dr Roger Walker of ESA's Advanced Concepts Team.

"When the solar wind, a 'plasma' of electrified gas released by the Sun, hits the magnetic field of the Earth, it creates a boundary consisting of two plasma layers. Each layer has differing electrical properties and this can accelerate some particles of the solar wind across the boundary, causing them to collide with the Earth's atmosphere and create the aurora."

In essence, a plasma double layer is the electrostatic equivalent of a waterfall. Just as water molecules pick up energy as they fall between the two different heights, so electrically charged particles pick up energy as they travel through the layers of different electrical properties.

Researchers Christine Charles and Rod Boswell at the Australian National University in Canberra, first created plasma double layers in their laboratory in 2003 and realised their accelerating properties could enable new spacecraft thrusters. This led the group to develop a prototype called the Helicon Double Layer Thruster.

The new ESA study, performed as part of ESA's Ariadna academic research programme in association with Ecole Polytechnique, Paris, confirms the Australian findings by showing that under carefully controlled conditions, the double layer could be formed and remains stable, allowing the constant acceleration of charged particles in a beam. The study also confirmed that stable double layers could be created with different propellant gas mixtures.

"The collaboration has been absolutely excellent,” says Dr Pascal Chabert, of Laboratoire de Physique et Technologie des Plasmas, Ecole Polytechnique. "It has been a real kick-off for me and has given me lots of new ideas for plasma propulsion concepts to investigate with the Advanced Concepts Team. The new direction for our laboratory had led to a patent on a promising new electric propulsion device called an Electronegative Plasma Thruster.”

To create the double layer, Chabert and colleagues created a hollow tube around which was wound a radio antenna. Argon gas was continuously pumped into the tube and the antenna transmitted helicoidal radio waves of 13 megahertz. This ionised the argon creating a plasma.

A diverging magnetic field at the end of the tube then forced the plasma leaving the pipe to expand. This allowed two different plasmas to be formed, upstream within the tube and downstream, and so the double layer was created at their boundary. This accelerated further argon plasma from the tube into a supersonic beam, creating thrust.

Calculations suggest that a helicon double layer thruster would take up a little more space than the main electric thruster on ESA's SMART-1 mission, yet it could potentially deliver many times more thrust at higher powers of up to 100 kW whilst giving a similar fuel efficiency.

In the next steps, ESA will now construct a detailed computer simulation of the plasma in and around the thruster and use the laboratory results to verify its accuracy, so that the in-space performance can be fully assessed and larger high power experimental thrusters can be investigated in the future.