According to foreign media New Atlas, due to a new rocket concept developed by Fatima Ebrahimi, a physicist at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), which uses magnetic fields to generate thrust, Manned missions to Mars may become more practical.
Over the past 64 years, robotic satellites and probes have achieved remarkable success, but these satellites and probes are relatively small. The heaviest is the ATV cargo spacecraft, with a full load weight of 44,738 pounds. (20,293 kilograms)--and that spacecraft only entered low-Earth orbit. The largest deep space probe is the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn, which weighs 12,467 pounds (5,655 kilograms).
That's because the biggest obstacle to humanity becoming a truly space-faring species are the engines used to propel spacecraft through the solar system and beyond. Chemical rockets can deliver impressive thrust, but have very little specific impulse. That is, they can't fire for very long before they run out of propellant. Electric propulsion systems, such as Hall thrusters, do just the opposite. Their thrust is equivalent to the weight of a small coin, but they can burn for months rather than minutes, so they can (slowly) build up to very high velocities.
Unfortunately, neither fuel is attractive for carrying astronauts to Mars. One might start quickly, another might start slowly, but they both mean months or even years of long and dangerous voyages. Both basic propulsion methods have their own advantages and disadvantages, but what is really needed, at least in the short term, is a propulsion method that combines the characteristics of both. Ideally, something with higher thrust and greater specific impulse.
The new Princeton concept works using the same mechanism that would act on solar flares. These flares are made up of electrically charged atoms and particles called plasma, which are trapped in powerful magnetic fields, where complex interactions occur.
For propulsion systems, Ebrahimi is particularly interested in an interaction called magnetic reconnection, which is the process by which magnetic energy is converted into kinetic, thermal and radiative energy of particles. This phenomenon is seen not only on the sun, but also in the Earth's atmosphere and inside tokamak fusion reactors, such as PPPL's ??National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX).
In a very common way, magnetic thrusters are like the ion thrusters that are increasingly common on spacecraft. These thrusters work by charging a propellant composed of heavy atoms such as xenon and then using an electric field to accelerate it. For the new concept thruster, it is accelerated by a magnetic field.
So far, computer simulations from the PPPL computer and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, show that magnetic reconnection thrusters can produce speeds faster than current electric propulsion systems. 10 times.
"Long-distance travel takes months or years because the specific impulse of chemical rocket engines is very low, so it takes a while for the vehicle to reach speed," Ebrahimi said. "But if we build thrusters based on magnetic reconnection, then conceivably we could complete long-distance missions in less time."
In addition to shortening travel times, the new thruster concept can also Fine-tune the magnetic field for throttling. In addition, the thrusters don't just shoot plasma, they also shoot plasma balls, which are balls of plasma contained in magnetic bubbles, adding even more power. In addition, the thrusters do not rely on heavy elements as propellants and can be loaded with lighter and cheaper elements.
"Other thrusters require heavy gases, made of atoms like xenon, whereas in this concept you can use any type of gas," Ebrahimi said.
The research was published in the Journal of Plasma Physics.