MIT Plasma Thruster Program

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MSimon
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MIT Plasma Thruster Program

Post by MSimon »

Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.

djolds1
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Re: MIT Plasma Thruster Program

Post by djolds1 »

Ah yes, the helicon thruster. Shows up as a component of the VASIMR and Dr. Winglee's contraptions (M2P2, Magbeam, etc).

Nice ideas all, and IMO all irrelevant. Its those first 150kms that are killer. Beat those and you're halfway to anywhere.
Vae Victis

Betruger
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Post by Betruger »

I'm no specialist, but everything I've seen shows the VASIMR schemes as clearly the best for propulsion within the Mars/Jupiter asteroid belt, and easily the best for station keeping around any planet or satellite within the inner system.

djolds1
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Post by djolds1 »

Betruger wrote:I'm no specialist, but everything I've seen shows the VASIMR schemes as clearly the best for propulsion within the Mars/Jupiter asteroid belt, and easily the best for station keeping around any planet or satellite within the inner system.
Depends on your definition of "best."

Typical NASA/DoD "low mass, fast, and costs more than the GDP of China?"

Until you're in LEO its all vaporware. And even once in LEO, much cheaper and a bit slower has attractions.
Vae Victis

KitemanSA
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Re: MIT Plasma Thruster Program

Post by KitemanSA »

djolds1 wrote: Nice ideas all, and IMO all irrelevant. Its those first 150kms that are killer. Beat those and you're halfway to anywhere.
KITE launchers of the world unite! :o

djolds1
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Re: MIT Plasma Thruster Program

Post by djolds1 »

KitemanSA wrote:
djolds1 wrote: Nice ideas all, and IMO all irrelevant. Its those first 150kms that are killer. Beat those and you're halfway to anywhere.
KITE launchers of the world unite! :o
:twisted: There are a number of options. Various air launch/cannon or ram accelerator/tether relays, The "Cheap & Stupid Engineering" philosophy of the Sea Dragon BDB, and of course a megascale structure for a national prestige project. Plenty of pathways if the will is there.
Vae Victis

alexjrgreen
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Re: MIT Plasma Thruster Program

Post by alexjrgreen »

KitemanSA wrote:
djolds1 wrote: Nice ideas all, and IMO all irrelevant. Its those first 150kms that are killer. Beat those and you're halfway to anywhere.
KITE launchers of the world unite! :o
SkyBase, anyone?
Ars artis est celare artem.

IntLibber
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Post by IntLibber »

Betruger wrote:I'm no specialist, but everything I've seen shows the VASIMR schemes as clearly the best for propulsion within the Mars/Jupiter asteroid belt, and easily the best for station keeping around any planet or satellite within the inner system.
VASIMR's big claim to fame is its ability to thrust/impulse throttle, which no other electric propulsion system can do. However, it is a bit of a power hog.

Roger
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Re: MIT Plasma Thruster Program

Post by Roger »

KitemanSA wrote:
djolds1 wrote: Nice ideas all, and IMO all irrelevant. Its those first 150kms that are killer. Beat those and you're halfway to anywhere.
KITE launchers of the world unite! :o
Obviously the poster is paid by the Kite Manufacturers Association of the United States. Probably a Kite lobbyist............
I like the p-B11 resonance peak at 50 KV acceleration. In2 years we'll know.

KitemanSA
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Re: MIT Plasma Thruster Program

Post by KitemanSA »

Roger wrote:
KitemanSA wrote:
djolds1 wrote: Nice ideas all, and IMO all irrelevant. Its those first 150kms that are killer. Beat those and you're halfway to anywhere.
KITE launchers of the world unite! :o
Obviously the poster is paid by the Kite Manufacturers Association of the United States. Probably a Kite lobbyist............
See endo-atmospheric tethers in the non-rocket spacelaunch page of wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-rocket_spacelaunch

JohnSmith
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Re: MIT Plasma Thruster Program

Post by JohnSmith »

KitemanSA wrote: There are a number of options. Various air launch/cannon or ram accelerator/tether relays, The "Cheap & Stupid Engineering" philosophy of the Sea Dragon BDB, and of course a megascale structure for a national prestige project. Plenty of pathways if the will is there.
Ah, my very favorite launch technique, the ram accelerator. A fun variant is the laser launch tube. Maybe if the military ever gets those megawatt lasers right...

Aero
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Post by Aero »

I saw on TV that the Pumpkin launcher (tosser) record is over 4000 feet. If we could just ramp that technology up by a factor just over 5280 times, that would make a fun launch device. Its real simple tech, too! It just uses a very long tube and a lot of compressed air.
Aero

KitemanSA
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Re: MIT Plasma Thruster Program

Post by KitemanSA »

JohnSmith wrote:
KitemanSA wrote: There are a number of options. Various air launch/cannon or ram accelerator/tether relays, The "Cheap & Stupid Engineering" philosophy of the Sea Dragon BDB, and of course a megascale structure for a national prestige project. Plenty of pathways if the will is there.
Ah, my very favorite launch technique, the ram accelerator. A fun variant is the laser launch tube. Maybe if the military ever gets those megawatt lasers right...
Please be careful who you quote. I didn't say that, Duane J. Oldsen did. Credit where credit is due, what?

djolds1
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Re: MIT Plasma Thruster Program

Post by djolds1 »

JohnSmith wrote:Ah, my very favorite launch technique, the ram accelerator. A fun variant is the laser launch tube. Maybe if the military ever gets those megawatt lasers right...
Aero wrote:I saw on TV that the Pumpkin launcher (tosser) record is over 4000 feet. If we could just ramp that technology up by a factor just over 5280 times, that would make a fun launch device. Its real simple tech, too! It just uses a very long tube and a lot of compressed air.
How about 1000km long?

http://www.nas.nasa.gov/About/Education ... PBI110.HTM
http://www.islandone.org/LEOBiblio/SPBI110.HTM

Tho environmentalists would go into apoplectic conniptions at the thought.

I do like disposable one-shot ram accelerators for launching tethers for relays.
Vae Victis

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