Plasma Engine

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https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/techandscience/scientist-invents-new-plasma-engine-for-rockets/ar-BB1dd3Cb

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/01/210128134739.htm

Some details...

"A new concept for the generation of thrust for space propulsion is introduced. Energetic thrust is generated in the form of plasmoids (confined plasma in closed magnetic loops) when magnetic helicity (linked magnetic field lines) is injected into an annular channel. Using a novel configuration of static electric and magnetic fields, the concept utilizes a current-sheet instability to spontaneously and continuously create plasmoids via magnetic reconnection. The generated low-temperature plasma is simulated in a global annular geometry using the extended magnetohydrodynamic model. Because the system-size plasmoid is an Alfvenic outflow from the reconnection site, its thrust is proportional to the square of the magnetic field strength and does not ideally depend on the mass of the ion species of the plasma. Exhaust velocities in the range of 20 to

500 km s−1500 km s−1, controllable by the coil currents, are observed in the simulations."

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022377820001476

The article failed to make it clear that the plasma engine would be used as the final upper stage of the rocket. The lower stage(s) would continue to be powered by chemical fuels. The plasma engine would provide the final acceleration of the payload.

My experience with plasmas began as a junior in high school (1959) after reading an article in Scientific American. Another student and I constructed a water cooled plasma jet to enter in the Illinois Science Fair. The following year, after visiting a researcher at the University of Chicago who also was using plasma jets, we switched to using argon and had a much better device. The art of generating plasma has gone far beyond our crude efforts six decades ago.

Plasma engines don't have high enough thrust for launching into orbit. Plasma engines have a higher Isp, (the amount of time 1 lb of propellant can produce 1 lb of thrust), but that would be useless if the plasma engine burned longer without leaving the launch pad.

In space, however, a higher Isp is an advantage, everything else being equal. Some consideration has to be made for the weight (mass) of the engine.

Children will make the future, please encourage them.

https://makezine.com/projects/ionic-thruster/

You can only expel the gas faster because hydrogen is so much lighter than current fuels. But storing 1 lb of liquid hydrogen requires about 14x the volume needed for 1 lb of the conventional liquid oxygen -hydrogen fuel that is being used to compare energy outputs. Rocket weights at take off typically comprise 95% fuel and 5% fuel containment, pipes, engines and payload. A rocket of the same length but 4x the diameter could contain approx 14x the volume of fuel. That equates to a fuel container about 7 times heavier. Multiply the fuel containment weight by 7 and you need over 100% the weight in fuel to lift the combined weight of the fuel and rocket and that is without adding the weight of the magnets and the electricity generators to power them.

Do I think this will be realize soon? No. I think this needs a fuel mixture of hydrogen - anti gravity fluid to get off the ground.

Pretty sure something like this would need to be assembled in space as it will be huge and heavy.

Conquer the universe ? Man can't even conquer mother nature. So, the answer is no.

See "Ion Propulsion." A throttleable design would be most efficient keeping the exhaust velocity at maximum and controlling impulse by varying the ion injection rate?

Someone here shared the link to the full article; thank you. I join the majority of users here and agree that this technology is too advanced to be implemented soon. However, such ideas should appear from time to time because they mean we develop. But please, tell me, is this technology necessary for us now?