The Use of Interplanetary Medium as Fuel for Plasma Thrusters

Abstract

We examine the use of the interplanetary substance as a possible fuel for spacecraft's plasma thrusters for interplanetary flights. The solar radiation is considered as an energy source for the ionization and the acceleration of particles of captured space environment that is used as drop weight. The method of capturing the space environment, which is dependent on its density, the velocity of the spacecraft, and the power of solar radiation, defines the technical feasibility of this scheme. Both pulsed and continuous operations of the plasma accelerator are possible under some conditions as shown in the estimates.

Plasma Accelerator Utilizing the Medium of Near-Earth Space for Orbital Transfer Vehicles

“…[3][4][5][6][7]). These limitations for plasma thrusters, however, may, in principle, be evaded when external power and matter sources are applied (see [8,9] and the references therein). Solar radiation could be an energy source for ionizing and propelling the operational matter collected from the interplanetary medium comprising cosmic dust and solar wind [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23].…”

“…A possible technical implementation for such a thruster scheme was initially described in Refs. [8,9]; a diagram of this device is displayed in Figure 1 below. Although the principle of operation for the proposed device is clear from this figure, we shall briefly describe some key points.…”