Plasma Propulsion: Can SpaceX use Advanced Plasma Propulsion for Starship?

By Fouad Sabry

What Is Plasma Propulsion

A SpaceX Starship powered by chemical methylox engines will take up to six months to reach Mars. On Earth, radiation exposure is less than 2.5 milliseiverts per year. On their approach to Mars, colonists will face levels 300 times higher than that. Can we use superconducting advanced plasma propulsion technologies to cut the time down to 30 days? Neutron Star Systems has developed an improved magnetoplasmadynamic thruster system that uses rare earth barium copper oxide high temperature superconducting electromagnets to significantly improve plasma propulsion performance while consuming less electricity. This could be the way of the future for spaceflight propulsion.

Technically, there are two types of propulsion systems namely chemical and electric depending on the sources of the fuel. Electrostatic thrusters are used for launching small satellites in low earth orbit which are capable to provide thrust for long time intervals. These thrusters consume less fuel compared to chemical propulsion systems. Therefore for the cost reduction interests, space scientists are interested to develop thrusters based on electric propulsion technology.

Can SpaceX use Advanced Plasma Propulsion for Starship?

How You Will Benefit

(I) Insights, and validations about the following topics:

Chapter 1: Plasma Propulsion Engine
Chapter 2: Spaceflight
Chapter 3: Wingless Electromagnetic Air Vehicle
Chapter 4: Electrically Powered Spacecraft Propulsion
Chapter 5: Ion thruster
Chapter 6: Stellarator
Chapter 7: Electric sail
Chapter 8: MagBeam
Chapter 9: Spacecraft propulsion
Chapter 10: Advanced Electric Propulsion System
Chapter 11: Anti-gravity
Chapter 12: Artificial gravity

(II) Answering the public top questions about plasma propulsion.
(III) Real world examples for the usage of plasma propulsion in many fields.
(IV) 17 appendices to explain, briefly, 266 emerging technology in each industry to have 360-degree full understanding of plasma propulsion' technologies.

Who This Book Is For

Professionals, undergraduate and graduate students, enthusiasts, hobbyists, and those who want to go beyond basic knowledge or information for any kind of plasma propulsion.

• Language: English
• Publisher: One Billion Knowledgeable
• Release date: Oct 13, 2021

Book preview

Plasma Propulsion

Other Books by The Author

1 – Smart Machines

2 – Brain Computer Interface

3 – Swarm Intelligence

4 – Autonomous Vehicles

5 – Autonomous Drones

6 – Autonomous Robotics

7 – Autonomous Weapons

8 – Agricultural Robotics

9 – Closed Ecological Systems

10 – Cultured Meat

11 – Vertical Farming

12 – Plasma Propulsion

***

Series by The Author

Emerging Technologies in Information Technology

1 – Smart Machines

Emerging Technologies in Neuroscience

1 – Brain Computer Interface

Emerging Technologies in Robotics

1 – Swarm Intelligence

Emerging Technologies in Autonomous Things

1 – Autonomous Vehicles

2 – Autonomous Drones

3 – Autonomous Robotics

4 – Autonomous Weapons

Emerging Technologies in Agriculture

1 – Agricultural Robotics

2 – Closed Ecological Systems

3 – Cultured Meat

4 – Vertical Farming

Emerging Technologies in Space

1 - Plasma Propulsion

***

One Billion Knowledgeable

Plasma Propulsion

Can SpaceX use Advanced Plasma Propulsion for Starship?

Fouad Sabry

Copyright

Plasma Propulsion Copyright © 2021 by Fouad Sabry. All Rights Reserved.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

Cover designed by Fouad Sabry.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Bonus

You can send an email to [e-mail] with the subject line Plasma Propulsion: Can SpaceX use Advanced Plasma Propulsion for Starship?, or just click on this link and click on send on your email client, and you will receive an email which contains the first few chapters of this book.

Fouad Sabry

Visit 1BK website at

www.1BKOfficial.org

Preface

Why did I write this book?

The story of writing this book started on 1989, when I was a student in the Secondary School of Advanced Students.

It is remarkably like the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Schools, which are now available in many advanced countries.

STEM is a curriculum based on the idea of educating students in four specific disciplines — science, technology, engineering, and mathematics — in an interdisciplinary and applied approach. This term is typically used to address an education policy or a curriculum choice in schools. It has implications for workforce development, national security concerns and immigration policy.

There was a weekly class in the library, where each student is free to choose any book and read for 1 hour. The objective of the class is to encourage the students to read subjects other than the educational curriculum.

In the library, while I was looking at the books on the shelves, I noticed huge books, total of 5,000 pages in 5 parts. The books name is The Encyclopedia of Technology, which describes everything around us, from absolute zero to semiconductors, almost every technology, at that time, was explained with colorful illustrations and simple words. I started to read the encyclopedia, and of course, I was not able to finish it in the 1-hour weekly class.

So, I convinced my father to buy the encyclopedia. My father bought all the technology tools for me in the beginning of my life, the first computer and the first technology encyclopedia, and both have a great impact on myself and my career.

I have finished the entire encyclopedia in the same summer vacation of this year, and then I started to see how the universe works and to how to apply that knowledge to everyday problems.

My passion to the technology started mor than 30 years ago and still the journey goes on.

This book is part of The Encyclopedia of Emerging Technologies which is my attempt to give the readers the same amazing experience I had when I was in high school, but instead of 20th century technologies, I am more interested in the 21st century emerging technologies, applications, and industry solutions.

The Encyclopedia of Emerging Technologies will consist of 365 books, each book will be focused on one single emerging technology. You can read the list of emerging technologies and their categorization by industry in the part of Coming Soon, at the end of the book.

365 books to give the readers the chance to increase their knowledge on one single emerging technology every day within the course of one year period.

***

Introduction

How did I write this book?

In every book of The Encyclopedia of Emerging Technologies, I am trying to get instant, raw search insights, direct from the minds of the people, trying to answer their questions about the emerging technology.

There are 3 billion Google searches every day, and 20% of those have never been seen before. They are like a direct line to the people thoughts.

Sometimes that’s ‘How do I remove paper jam’. Other times, it is the wrenching fears and secret hankerings they would only ever dare share with Google.

In my pursuit to discover an untapped goldmine of content ideas about Plasma Propulsion, I use many tools to listen into autocomplete data from search engines like Google, then quickly cranks out every useful phrase and question, the people are asking around the keyword Plasma Propulsion.

It is a goldmine of people insight, I can use to create fresh, ultra-useful content, products and services. The kind people, like you, really want.

People searches are the most important dataset ever collected on the human psyche. Therefore, this book is a live product, and constantly updated by more and more answers for new questions about Plasma Propulsion, asked by people, just like you and me, wondering about this new emerging technology and would like to know more about it.

The approach for writing this book is to get a deeper level of understanding of how people search around Plasma Propulsion, revealing questions and queries which I would not necessarily think off the top of my head, and answering these questions in super easy and digestible words, and to navigate the book around in a straightforward way.

So, when it comes to writing this book, I have ensured that it is as optimized and targeted as possible. This book purpose is helping the people to further understand and grow their knowledge about Plasma Propulsion. I am trying to answer people’s questions as closely as possible and showing a lot more.

It is a fantastic, and beautiful way to explore questions and problems that the peoples have and answer them directly, and add insight, validation, and creativity to the content of the book – even pitches and proposals. The book uncovers rich, less crowded, and sometimes surprising areas of research demand I would not otherwise reach. There is no doubt that, it is expected to increase the knowledge of the potential readers’ minds, after reading the book using this approach.

I have applied a unique approach to make the content of this book always fresh. This approach depends on listening to the people minds, by using the search listening tools. This approach helped me to:

Meet the readers exactly where they are, so I can create relevant content that strikes a chord and drives more understanding to the topic.

Keep my finger firmly on the pulse, so I can get updates when people talk about this emerging technology in new ways, and monitor trends over time.

Uncover hidden treasures of questions need answers about the emerging technology to discover unexpected insights and hidden niches that boost the relevancy of the content and give it a winning edge.

Stop wasting time on gutfeel and guesswork about the content wanted by the readers and fill the book content with what the people need and say goodbye to the endless content ideas based on speculations.

Make solid decisions, and take fewer risks, to get front row seats to what people want to read and want to know — in real time — and use search data to make bold decisions, about which topics to include and which topics to exclude.

Streamline my content production to identify content ideas without manually having to sift through individual opinions to save days and even weeks of time.

It is wonderful to help the people to increase their knowledge in a straightforward way by just answering their questions.

I think the approach of writing of this book is unique as It collates, and tracks the important questions being asked by the readers on search engines.

***

Acknowledgments

Writing a book is harder than I thought and more rewarding than I could have ever imagined. None of this would have been possible without the work completed by prestigious researchers, and I would like to acknowledge their efforts to increase the knowledge of the public about this emerging technology.

***

Dedication

To the enlightened, the ones who see things differently, and want the world to be better -- they are not fond of the status quo or the existing state ... You can disagree with them too much, and you can argue with them even more, but you cannot ignore them, and you cannot underestimate them, because they always change things... they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones or amateur, others see genius and innovators, because the ones who are enlightened enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do, and lead the people to the enlightenment.

***

Epigraph

A SpaceX Starship powered by chemical methylox engines will take up to six months to reach Mars. On Earth, radiation exposure is less than 2.5 milliseiverts per year. On their approach to Mars, colonists will face levels 300 times higher than that. Can we use superconducting advanced plasma propulsion technologies to cut the time down to 30 days? Neutron Star Systems has developed an improved magnetoplasmadynamic thruster system that uses rare earth barium copper oxide high temperature superconducting electromagnets to significantly improve plasma propulsion performance while consuming less electricity. This could be the way of the future for spaceflight propulsion.

***

Table of Contents

Plasma Propulsion

Other Books by The Author

Series by The Author

Plasma Propulsion

Copyright

Bonus

Preface

Introduction

Acknowledgments

Dedication

Epigraph

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Plasma Propulsion Engine

Chapter 2: Spaceflight

Chapter 3: Wingless Electromagnetic Air Vehicle

Chapter 4: Electrically Powered Spacecraft Propulsion

Chapter 5: Ion thruster

Chapter 6: Stellarator

Chapter 7: Electric sail

Chapter 8: MagBeam

Chapter 9: Spacecraft propulsion

Chapter 10: Advanced Electric Propulsion System

Chapter 11: Anti-gravity

Chapter 12: Artificial gravity

Epilogue

About the Author

Coming Soon

Appendices: Emerging Technologies in Each Industry

***

Chapter 1: Plasma Propulsion Engine

Background pattern Description automatically generated

A thruster during test firing

Artist rendition of VASIMR plasma engine

A plasma propulsion engine is a type of electric propulsion that uses a quasi-neutral plasma to generate thrust. In contrast, ion thruster engines generate thrust by extracting an ion current from the plasma source and accelerating it to high velocities using grids/anodes. These come in a variety of types (see electric propulsion). However, in the scientific literature, the phrase plasma thruster is sometimes used to refer to thrusters that are normally referred to as ion engines.

Plasma rockets normally do not use high voltage grids or anodes/cathodes to accelerate charged particles in plasma, but rather use internal currents and potentials to accelerate the ions, resulting in a lower exhaust velocity due to the lack of high accelerating voltages.

There are several advantages to using this sort of thruster. The absence of anode high voltage grids eliminates a potential limiting aspect as a result of grid ion erosion. The plasma exhaust is 'quasi-neutral,' which means it contains an equal number of positive ions and electrons, allowing simple ion-electron recombination in the exhaust to neutralize the exhaust plume, eliminating the requirement for an electron gun (hollow cathode). Utilizing an external antenna, such a thruster frequently creates the source plasma using radio frequency or microwave radiation. This characteristic, combined with the lack of hollow cathodes (which are sensitive to all except noble gases), allows this thruster to be used with a wide range of propellants, from argon to carbon dioxide air mixes to astronaut urine.

Plasma engines are better suited for interplanetary missions.

Many space agencies, including the European Space Agency, the Iranian Space Agency, and the Australian National University, developed plasma propulsion systems.

History

Some plasma engines have been used in missions and have seen active flight time. NASA collaborated with Busek to launch the first hall effect thruster aboard the Tacsat-2 satellite in 2011. The thruster served as the primary propulsion system for the satellite. That same year, the business released another hall effect thruster. Wuhan University published research on a plasma jet in 2020.

The VASIMR is being developed by Ad Astra Rocket Company. The 200 kW RF generators necessary to ionize the propellant are manufactured by the Canadian company Nautel. Some component tests and Plasma Shoot studies are carried out in a laboratory in Liberia, Costa Rica. Dr. Franklin Chang-Daz, a former NASA astronaut, is in charge of this project (CRC-USA).

Costa Rican Aerospace Alliance has announced the creation of outside support for the VASIMR, which will be installed outside the International Space Station. This stage of the plan to test the VASIMR in orbit was supposed to take place in 2016.

Advantages

The specific impulse (Isp) value of plasma engines is substantially higher than that of most other types of rocket technology. The VASIMR thruster can be throttled for impulses higher than 12000 seconds, and hall thrusters have reached 2000 seconds. This is a major improvement over standard chemical rocket bipropellant fuels, which have specific impulses of 450 s. Plasma rockets with high impulse can achieve relatively high speeds over long periods of acceleration. According to ex-astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz, the VASIMR thruster may transport a payload to Mars in as little as 39 days at a maximum velocity of 34 miles per second (55 km/s).

Certain plasma thrusters, such as the mini-helicon, have received praise for their ease of use and efficiency. Their operation theory is rather basic, and they can use a number of gases or combinations of gases.

These qualities suggest that plasma thrusters have value for many mission profiles.

Drawbacks

The energy need is possibly the most significant barrier to the practicality of plasma thrusters. For example, the VX-200 engine uses 200 kW of electrical power to create 5 N of thrust, or 40 kW/N. Fission reactors may be able to meet this power need, however the reactor mass (including heat rejection mechanisms) may be prohibitive.

Plasma erosion is another issue. During operation, the plasma can thermally ablate the walls of the thruster cavity and support structure, resulting in system failure.

Plasma engines are unsuitable for launch-to-Earth orbit due to their extremely low thrust. These rockets have a maximum thrust of roughly 2 pounds on average. Plasma thrusters are extremely efficient in wide space, but they do nothing to offset the cost of chemical rockets in orbit.

Engine types

Helicon plasma thrusters

Helicon plasma thrusters make use of low-frequency electromagnetic waves (Helicon waves), which exist inside plasma when it is exposed to a static magnetic field. An RF antenna wrapped around a gas chamber generates waves that excite the gas, resulting in plasma. The plasma is discharged at high velocity to generate thrust via acceleration schemes that necessitate various combinations of ideal topological electric and magnetic fields. They are classified as electrodeless thrusters. Because these thrusters may use several propellants, they are beneficial for extended flights. They can be created using inexpensive materials such as a glass soda bottle.

Magnetoplasmadynamic thrusters

Magnetoplasmadynamic thrusters (MPD) generate