A technology that uses a magnetic balloon to sail
ionized particles shed by the Sun could speed humans to the Jovian moons in less than two years and push a probe past Voyager 1 to become the first spacecraft beyond our Solar System.
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The low-cost Mini-Magnetosphere Plasma Propulsion, or M2P2, propels spacecraft at speeds far greater than today's chemical and even ion propulsion systems, and its magnetic-field sail would even protect travelers from deadly solar and Jovian radiation.
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| The Earth has a magnetosphere, produced by the terrestrial magnetic field and plasma from the ionization of the upper layers of the atmosphere. The M2P2 will parallel these naturally occurring systems by creating an electromagnetic bubble or mini-magnetosphere around the spacecraft. Credit: Robert Winglee. Click to enlarge.
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| Artist's impression of a mini-magnetosphere deployed around a spacecraft. Plasma or ionized gas is trapped on the magnetic field lines generated onboard, and this plasma inflates the magnetic field much like hot air in a balloon. The mini-magnetosphere is then blown by the solar wind. Click to enlarge.
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| Tests of the prototype being developed at the Univ. of Washington were recently performed at a large vacuum chamber at Test Area 300 at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. These tests allowed for expansion over some 16 feet, or nearly 50 times the magnet radius, to be studied. Credit: Robert Winglee. Click to enlarge.
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| This image shows the production of large scale magnetic bubbles in a test area using the Univ. of Washington M2P2 Prototype. Credit: Robert Winglee. Click to enlarge.
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"The technology seeks to do what space does -- deploy a magnetized sail to travel with the winds," says University of Washington scientist Robert Winglee, who came up with the idea after 10 years as a geophysicist studying Earth inside and out to its radiation environment. The Sun is constantly shedding high-speed particles, called the solar wind, that race out from it at speeds averaging 800,000 mph (400 km/sec).
If M2P2 were used for a mission to the Jovian moon
Europa, it would take only 1.5 years to arrive. Using conventional chemical propulsion, such a trip could take 5 years.
Other technologies also are designed to sail the solar wind, but they rely on a lightweight material that could be penetrated by meteors. Winglee's magnetic fields would operate unperturbed by meteors.
How it works
The M2P2 sail starts with an eight-inch magnet that creates a tiny magnetic field. That field is expanded like a balloon by filling it with an inert gas split into electrons and ionized particles. That superheated gas, called plasma, then is amped up by a solenoid that acts as a switch to create a larger magnetic field.
The magnetic "balloon" eventually can inflate around a spacecraft to create magnetic field lines reaching as far as 25 miles (40 kilometers) across. The solar wind then "blows" against the large bubble to propel the spacecraft, with the sail acting like an umbrella braced against a bad storm. Only in this case, the umbrella loses and the spacecraft can put away up to 4.3 million miles a day.
The system can make a craft travel at speeds 10 times as fast as the space shuttle, up to 180,000 mph (50 km/sec). At that rate, an M2P2 spacecraft could catch up with Voyager 1, currently the furthest man-made object in space at 7.5 billion miles (12 billion kilometers) from Earth, before it reaches the edge of the Solar System.
How to get back
For human travelers who prefer to return to Earth rather than live in space perpetually, Winglee says M2P2 basically could be used as an engine to "tack" the solar wind like a sailboat tacks the terrestrial winds.
By angling the spacecraft and altering its speed relative to the Sun, you could use the wind to either push a craft away from the Sun or allow the Sun's gravity to suck the craft back in.
Honors and the new millennium
Winglee was honored this month by Discover Magazine for his aerospace innovation, along with seven other inventors.
SPACE.com Founder Lou Dobbs introduced Winglee at the ceremony, saying, "This technology may enable us to establish a permanent presence in space, something existing technologies will not allow us to do."
There are hopes that M2P2 soon will be used on a couple smaller experiments or even missions in NASA's New Millennium Program, which focuses on speeding up space exploration by validating new technologies in flight.
The tech readiness scale
Hoppy Price, manager of solar sail tech development at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, sits on a committee that evaluates technology proposals for New Millennium missions.
"It's a neat concept," he said of M2P2. "It has a lot of potential but it's also very early in the research phase."
"Most of the solar sail technologies we are looking at now are at tech readiness level four, which means we have some laboratory demonstrations of the technology," he said. M2P2 is at a lower level of readiness for the moment, he said, although fast development of prototypes and testing could make it available for use in some of the approaching New Millennium missions, such as Space Technology 7.
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