"Howe Industries is developing a Pulsed Plasma Rocket (PPR) capable of producing 100,000 N of thrust with a specific impulse of 5,000 seconds, promising to revolutionize space travel by enabling faster and safer manned missions to Mars and beyond. (Artist’s concept.) Credit: SciTechDaily.com" (ScitechDaily, Mars in a Flash: How Pulsed Plasma Rockets Are Revolutionizing Space Travel)
The new pulsed plasma rockets (PPR) with 100,000-newton thrust and a specific impulse of 5000 seconds are the tools that can transport humans to Mars. In a very short time. If we compare that time with chemical rockets. The pulsed plasma systems can use fusion, fission, or antimatter to create high-energy plasma that pushes the rocket forward. The light antimatter system uses the antimatter or positron injection into the water or hydrogen.
The system that raises the propellant's temperature can also be radio waves, microwaves, or lasers. In a radio wave-based system. Plus and minus radiowaves impact the propellant. And form an electric arc. In the microwave-based system, the engine heats propellant using microwaves, and then a magnetic field pulls that heated plasma backward. It's laser plasma engines. The system uses lasers to heat and ionize propellants.
Simplified image of the Pulsed Plasma Rocket (PPR) system. Credit: Brianna Clements, edited (ScitechDaily, Mars in a Flash: How Pulsed Plasma Rockets Are Revolutionizing Space Travel)
It doesn't matter how the heating systems or ionizers get their energy. And that means the pulsed plasma engines can operate using solar power. Nuclear rockets always need long wings to decrease the reactor's temperature. So the system may use solar power for at least part of the mission time.
Small-size pulsed plasma engines that operate near Earth can get the power remotely from high-power radio transmitters or laser satellites. That kind of system can transport humans between Earth's orbiter and the Moon. That means the moon shuttle can also use pulsed plasma. And we can say that the moon shuttle must not have the same capacity as Marscraft.
The idea of those (systems is simple. A rocket engine raises the material's temperature to a very high level, and then that expansion pushes the craft forward. One of the problems with pulsed plasma engines is how to control plasma. If high-energy plasma touches the plasma channel wall, it burns that will immediately.
https://scitechdaily.com/mars-in-a-flash-how-pulsed-plasma-rockets-are-revolutionizing-space-travel/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specific_impulse
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