Electrodeless Lorentz Force thruster

[shynung]

Remember the fusion rocket concept I posted a couple months ago?

It turns out the company responsible behind it is also developing what the thread is named after - ELF thruster, for short. Here's a couple papers.

In a nutshell (as far as I can understand), the thruster turns whatever propellant it was fed (water and simulated Martian atmosphere was tested) into a blob of field-reversed configuration plasmoid, then accelerating it with magnetic coils.

If this works, we may have what could be a revolutionary engine for aircraft - an electric jet engine without moving parts. Still needs some way to power it, though.

So, what do you guys think?

Edited October 17, 2016 by shynung

[Shpaget]

Electroless?

So how do you power it?

[shynung]

16 minutes ago, Shpaget said:

Electroless?

So how do you power it?

Stupid keyboard missed the de part. Supposed to be Electrodeless.

Ah well. edited.

Edited October 17, 2016 by shynung

[Shpaget]

Ahh, makes much more sense.

[KSK]

Had a quick look at the first paper and it looks pretty detailed and was submitted to a scientific conference by a reputable university. So I'm presuming it's not another fantasy 'we can break physics plz?' space drive. Although I honestly don't know enough (or indeed much at all) about the subject matter to properly comment. I think @shynung put his(?) finger on the main question though - power requirements.

Edited October 18, 2016 by KSK

[Hary R]

I don't think it will work as a (realistic) jet engine as power requirement is the same as all other plasma truster out there. Still from what I understand, it have some interesting result and it's ability to change any propellant to plasma makes it a very promising thruster.

Well the atmo mod (if they figured out the power problem) is the most interesting part of it indeed.

22 minutes ago, KSK said:

 So I'm presuming it's not another fantasy 'we can break physics plz?' space drive. 

Well it's not, it's just another plasma thruster.

[shynung]

28 minutes ago, KSK said:

I think @shynung put his(?) finger on the main question though - power requirements.

Your addressing of me as a male is correct.

5 minutes ago, Hary R said:

I don't think it will work as a (realistic) jet engine as power requirement is the same as all other plasma truster out there. Still from what I understand, it have some interesting result and it's ability to change any propellant to plasma makes it a very promising thruster.

Well the atmo mod (if they figured out the power problem) is the most interesting part of it indeed.

Well it's not, it's just another plasma thruster.

It is indeed a plasma thruster - one that works with a variety of propellants. As I said, performance depends on how much power the ship has available. I'm presuming we can use it as a jet engine if the ship/plane carrying it has enough power generation capacity.

One thing I forgot to mention in the OP is that NASA is funding this through the NextSTEP program.

[Streetwind]

It's a really interesting concept, much like the fusion pulse rocket.

Unfortunately, much like the fusion pulse rocket, MSNW isn't sharing much info about ongoing progress - this is a long-haul development on only modest funding. It'll perhaps be relevant in the coming 5-10 years, but no sooner. No matter how impatient I may be =/

(It also doesn't solve the issue that we still don't have a proper in-space power solution beyond Earth orbit.)

Edited October 18, 2016 by Streetwind

[Hary R]

I believe in it as a future propulsion system but as streetwind said, it's not here yet.

 

And quite frankly it's ability to feed on large variety of propellant make it a perfect realistic si-fi engine.

[KSK]

1 hour ago, Hary R said:

I don't think it will work as a (realistic) jet engine as power requirement is the same as all other plasma truster out there. Still from what I understand, it have some interesting result and it's ability to change any propellant to plasma makes it a very promising thruster.

Well the atmo mod (if they figured out the power problem) is the most interesting part of it indeed.

Well it's not, it's just another plasma thruster.

Yup. But not knowing anything much about the field, "blob of field-reversed configuration plasmoid" looked like pure technobabble. So I looked a bit deeper just in case.