M2P2 (Mini-Magnetospheric Plasma Propulsion)
A novel propulsion concept under study at the University of Washington,
Seattle, with NASA funding. M2P2 would use the solar
wind to accelerate a spacecraft by pushing on a miniature version of
Earth's magnetosphere generated by the
craft. The injection of plasma from the Sun
into an artificially generated magnetic field would drag the magnetic field
lines out and form a bubble some 30–60 km in diameter, depending on
the strength of field that the spacecraft produced. An engine using this
technology is estimated to be 10–20 times more efficient than the
Space Shuttle Main Engine. With a bottle of just 3 kg of helium
as plasma fuel, the magnetic bubble could be operated for three months –
the size of the bubble growing and shrinking in response to changes in the
solar wind. Calculations have shown that there is enough power in the solar
wind to accelerate a 136-kg space probe to speeds of up to 80 km/s, or 6.9
million km/day. By contrast, the Space Shuttle travels at a mere 7.7 km/s
or 688,000 km/day. If launched by 2005, an M2P2 spacecraft could have reached
the heliopause (where the solar wind runs into the interstellar wind) by
2015 – about four years ahead of Voyager
1.
Related
categories
• ADVANCED
PROPULSION CONCEPTS
• ROCKET
ENGINE TYPES
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