The new futuristic solar-electric thruster is opening the new road to the asteroid belt and inner solar system.

NASA:s new Psyche probe would send to the asteroid belt for taking samples of those rocks. The asteroid belt is one of the most promising areas for space mining. Those systems would act very simple way. In the first version, the spacecraft just closes the promising asteroid in the plastic bag and pulls it to the Earth orbiter. And then robots will cut it in pieces and send those bites to the Earth by using returning capsules. In the more futuristic scenario, the asteroids will cut in pieces at the asteroid belt, and then the mass drivers would send them to Earth. 

The mass drivers would shoot those asteroid bites to the mylar or kevlar net. The system would decrease the speed of those bites by targeting the magnetic field that has the same polarity as the bite of the asteroid. And in that case, the magnetic push effect will slow those objects. The problem is that those bites must react to magnets. So in that case the system can connect the iron bite to other materials. And shoot them to Earth by using magnetic rail guns. 

Psyche spacecraft can also be the model for the new type of spacecraft which uses solar-powered ion thruster inside the asteroid belt. But when the solar energy turns too low. The system will turn to use the nuclear reactor as the power source. The nuclear reactor's heat exchanger piping can install in the long solar panels. Those kinds of systems can travel to the solar system and take samples from the moons of the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn. 

The new concept in Psyche spacecraft is that system uses the ion engine that gets its power from solar panels. The thruster uses possible xenon ions to maneuver the spacecraft at the asteroid belt. The ion thruster can use all kinds of ions. And if the polarity of ions is opposite. There is needed the switch. That turns the order of the poles of the magnets that are accelerating those ions opposite. 

The Psyche can be the pathfinder to a new type of interplanetary spacecraft that can use solar power. When they are traveling inside the asteroid belt. But outside the asteroid belt where solar energy turns weak. That system can turn to use nuclear reactors. That thing saves nuclear fuel for the missions that go farther in the solar system. 

Long and powerful solar panels can also work as the structure for the reactor's cooling system. The heat exchanger piping is easy to install with those solar panels. And those long wings can also operate as platforms for powerful radars. The new spacecraft would be unmanned and they are acting as pathfinders for the manned spaceflights in the solar system. 

()https://scitechdaily.com/futuristic-solar-electric-thrusters-makes-nasas-psyche-spacecraft-go/

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