Assessment of Open Magnetic Fusion for Space Propulsion

Romanelli, Francesco; Bruno, Claudio

doi:10.2514/6.iac-06-c4.6.02

Cited by 12 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 35 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Nuclear power is a promising alternative, for the high energy density of its fuel is particularly attractive for rocket engines. Besides, taming nuclear fusion may be the only option we have to make a 1-year interplanetary round trip possible [5,7,8]. Interest in applications of fusion power has a long history behind and despite breakeven point may still be far to achieve for mankind, several space propulsion concepts have been investigated in the last half-century [9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pulsed fusion space propulsion: Computational Magneto-Hydro Dynamics of a multi-coil parabolic reaction chamber

2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Pulsed fusion propulsion might finally revolutionise manned space exploration by providing an affordable and relatively fast access to interplanetary destinations. However, such systems are still in an early development phase and one of the key areas requiring further investigations is the operation of the magnetic nozzle, the device meant to exploit the fusion energy and generate thrust. One of the last pulsed fusion magnetic nozzle design is the so called multi-coil parabolic reaction chamber: the reaction is thereby ignited at the focus of an open parabolic chamber, enclosed by a series of coaxial superconducting coils that apply a magnetic field. The field, beside confining the reaction and preventing any contact between hot fusion plasma and chamber structure, is also meant to reflect the explosion and push plasma out of the rocket. Reflection is attained thanks to electric currents induced in conductive skin layers that cover each of the coils, the change of plasma axial momentum generates thrust in reaction. This working principle has yet to be extensively verified and computational Magneto-Hydro Dynamics (MHD) is a viable option to achieve that. This work is one of the first detailed ideal-MHD analysis of a a multi-coil parabolic reaction chamber of this kind and has been completed employing PLUTO, a freely distributed computational code developed at the Physics Department of the University of Turin. The results are thus a preliminary verification of the chamber's performance. Nonetheless, plasma leakage through the chamber structure has been highlighted. Therefore, further investigations are required to validate the chamber design. Implementing a more accurate physical model (e.g. Hall-MHD or relativistic-MHD) is thus mandatory, and PLUTO shows the capabilities to achieve that.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pulsed fusion space propulsion: Computational Magneto-Hydro Dynamics of a multi-coil parabolic reaction chamber

2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Auxiliary power system comparison , and V pl is the plasma volume (according to our above estimates V pl = 30m3 …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Magnetic Fusion Engine

Gorelenkov¹,

Zakharov²,

Paluszek³

et al. 2007

43rd AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference &Amp;amp; Exhibit

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A new concept for an interplanetary and interstellar missions is discussed, which is based on a compact spherical tokamak fusion reactor and can potentially revolutionize human space flights by providing safe and affordable in-space transportation. The goal of this paper is an assessment of the concept employing the recent advances in fusion research. This concept, in contrast to other fusion concepts, utilizes the natural drift motion of charged particles in order to create a directed flux of energetic particles. The momentum of either energetic positive particles or fusion neutrons can be used either directly for propulsion or to heat the hydrogen propellant. One-way trip times are expected to be on a short time scale, such as one to three months for the trip to Mars. Both the exhaust velocity and thrust of the engine may be modulated. This permits the engine to be optimized for a wide variety of missions.

show abstract

“…Devices of this class are called open magnetic con®nement (OMC) reactors, and are discussed in section 8.10. Details of their application to propulsion is in [Romanelli and Bruno, 2005].…”

Section: Fusion Propulsion Reactor Conceptsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nevertheless, mirror fusion seems one of the promising technologies for rocket application. Here attention is focused only on the MCF aspects more closely related to propulsion, while an extensive discussion of its plasma con®nement and reactivity issues is in [Romanelli and Bruno, 2005].…”

Section: Mirror Mcf Rocketsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Success in this area hinges on the chances of fusion propulsion to be investigated with signi®cant resources. At the moment these are slight, but continuing interest by Japan in the GAMMA-10 mirror machine (at the Tsukuba research center), by Russia in the GOL-3 gas-dynamic mirror reactor at Novosibirsk and recent (2004) interest by ESA in fusion propulsion, e.g., see [Romanelli and Bruno, 2005], may be positive signs.…”

Section: Direct Thermal Mcf Vs Electric Mcf Rocketsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Stellar and quasi-stellar propulsion

Future Spacecraft Propulsion Systems

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Stellar and quasi-stellar propulsion 8.1 INTRODUCTIONStaggering as they may seem to us, interplanetary distances are puny compared to those to reach stars. Our Solar System is located about two-thirds of the way from the center of our Galaxy towards the rimÐabout 25,000 light-years from the galactic centre, on the inner edge of the Orion arm. Astrophysicists mapping the 21-cm hydrogen radiation found, in fact, that our Galaxy is a spiral galaxy, its ®ve major arms, or spokes (Centaurus, Sagittarius, Orion, Perseus and Cygnus) forming its apparent`disc'.This disk has a diameter of some 80,000 light-years and is approximately 2,000 light-years thick Using the distance of our Earth to the Sun, the astronomical unit, AU 1.496 Â 10 8 km, as yardstick, 1 light-year (9.46 Â 10 12 km) is approximately equal to 63,200 AU. Our Galaxy comprises some 100 million stars; their density decreases from the galactic centre towards the arms' ends, where average interstellar distances are of the order of many light years, see Chapter 1. The spiral structure of the Galaxy is such that the average distance between stars, were it a true homogeneous disc, would be about 50 light-years. In fact, stars are not uniformly distributed, their density increasing when going towards the galactic center and inside its ®ve major arms. This explains why the Sun's nearest neighbor is only a few lightyears away; see Figure 8.1.In this picture, the basic unit of distance is no longer the size of our Solar System, or the AU, but rather 1 light-year. For comparison, our Sun's closest star (Proxima Centauri) is 4.2 light-years away, or 4,000 times the diameter of our solar system measured at Pluto's orbit. If we had means to reach Pluto in a few months, reaching Proxima Centauri at the same speed would take of the order of a millennium.Lying behind these considerations is the question of why cross these immense distances, and which star to visit. Proxima Centauri is a star of spectral type M5e, same time of great interest to science. Perhaps with some exaggeration, these destinations could be dubbed quasi-interstellar (QI) destinations. Among them some of the most interesting are (in order of their known distance from Earth) the Kuiper Belt, the heliopause, the gravitational Sun lens region, and the Oort cloud. Missions to these regions are very attractive; the reasons are given brie¯y below. Quasi-interstellar destinationsLoosely speaking, the Kuiper Belt is the region of space beyond the orbit of Neptune or Pluto conventionally extending up to 100 AU from our Sun. Until the 1950s astronomers thought Pluto was more or less the last`planet': with the exception of comets, perhaps only one or two other objects might be lying beyond its orbit. In 1951 the Dutch astronomer Gerard Kuiper started wondering about the place of birth of short-period comets, since each of their passes near the Sun subtracts 0.01% of their mass; their lifetime should be also very short, some 10,000 passes, or only half a million years [Luu and Jewitt, 1996]. Since the Solar System ...

show abstract

Assessment of Open Magnetic Fusion for Space Propulsion

Cited by 12 publications

References 35 publications

Pulsed fusion space propulsion: Computational Magneto-Hydro Dynamics of a multi-coil parabolic reaction chamber

Pulsed fusion space propulsion: Computational Magneto-Hydro Dynamics of a multi-coil parabolic reaction chamber

Magnetic Fusion Engine

Stellar and quasi-stellar propulsion

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About