New spacecraft propulsion method could be out of this solar
system
FROM: Vince Stricherz [email protected] 206-543-2580
It sounds like a "droid" straight out of Star Wars. That's not a
coincidence because a new propulsion system dubbed M2P2 can greatly
boost spacecraft speeds, perhaps to 10 times the velocity of the
space shuttle, University of Washington scientists believe.
NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts last week awarded a
two-year, $500,000 grant to a UW team headed by geophysicist Robert
Winglee to continue research on Mini-Magnetospheric Plasma
Propulsion. If laboratory work and tests in space succeed, he hopes
in 10 years to launch an M2P2-equipped spacecraft that would become
the first from Earth to leave the Solar System.
That would be quite a feat, considering the craft would have to
overtake Voyager I, launched in 1977 and now about 6.8 billion
miles away but still within the solar system.
Winglee, an associate geophysics professor, has been working on
M2P2 the last nine months with geophysics professor George Parks
and John Slough, a research associate professor of aeronautics and
astronautics. They are developing a prototype and are preparing for
tests in the UW's Redmond Plasma Physics Laboratory.
Their system would use a plasma chamber about the size of a large
pickle jar, perhaps 10 inches by 10 inches, attached to a
spacecraft. Solar cells and solenoid coils would power the creation
of a dense magnetized plasma, or ionized gas, that would inflate an
electromagnetic field 10 to 12 miles in radius around the
spacecraft. The field would interact with and be dragged by the
solar wind.
Creating the field would be akin to raising a giant sail and
harnessing the solar wind, which moves at 780,000 to 1.8 million
miles an hour - or "here to Washington, D.C., in 10 seconds,"
Winglee said. There is enough power in the solar wind to move a
300-pound spacecraft at speeds up to 180,000 miles per hour or 4.3
million miles a day. By contrast, the space shuttle travels at
about 18,000 miles per hour or 430,000 miles a day.
At such speeds, an M2P2-equipped spacecraft launched today could
overtake Voyager I within eight years, despite Voyager's 22-year
head start.
The idea for M2P2 grew from the study of plasma jets forming around
young stars, and was formalized in a $75,000 startup grant from the
NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts.
The system has built-in advantages over solar sails, which are very
large, thin sheets of reflective material such as Mylar that can
turn sunlight into a propelling force. Solar sails are typically
many times larger than the spacecraft they propel and must be
deployed mechanically. The M2P2 plasma chamber is far lighter and
less bulky than sails. Just a few kilowatts of power would support
the magnetic field and only about 100 pounds of additional
propellant would be required. Adding the device to a spacecraft
might cost $1 million, but it would provide substantial cost
savings for the overall mission and would provide easier access to
the planets and beyond, Winglee said.
M2P2 could be a major advancement in space travel, but it might be
too tame for two generations that have grown up with
science-fiction adventures such as Star Trek and Star Wars.
"It's amazing how many people say, 'That's not fast enough,'"
Winglee said. "People want to go to warp drive so they can get to
the next solar system."
However, Star Trek's warp drive and the hyperdrive propulsion from
Star Wars, both of which can exceed light speed (186,000 miles per
second in a vacuum), are not possible under the current
understanding of the laws of physics.
For now, at least, plasma propulsion could prove to be the best
option to the science fiction propulsion systems. If tests on M2P2
succeed, Winglee expects the system's first use in space will come
on a mission NASA already will have scheduled.
"If it works, we'll have some real fun then," he said.
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For more information, contact Winglee at (206) 685-8160 or
[email protected]; Parks at (206) 543-0953 or
[email protected]; or Slough at (425) 881-7706
[email protected]
Additional information is available via the Internet at
http://www.geophys.washington.edu/Space/SpaceModel/M2P
