Magnetic Aerodynamic Rocket Assist For The Future... Plausible?

[Spacescifi]

 

So I was watching some youtube vids on magnetic induced wind as well as research on magnetic repulsion of ionized air and I thought... this could make for a good rocket SSTO assist.

 

The challenges are mutiple though, so this will be a futuristic technology.

Challenges to be solved one day by future men and women are:

1. How to make or design an uber magnet  that won't tear itself apart under constant operation (they break in mere moments nowadays)?

2. How to design a fuel source that has a high enough power withought being too heavy to lift off the ground for flight?

3. Partially solved. How to manipulate electomagnetic fields so that air is repelled below the  the ship, generating lift? We akready have magneto aerodynamic lifters on the books, just nothing much designed yet, but at least the physics does not say no.

 

Extreme possibility of possible realistic scifi use in the future?

 

A donut shaped SSTO with two rear rocket nozzles at one end. VTOL is acomplished by ionizing the air around the shlp and repelling it downward while the ship lifts up. Expect a light show, lots of lightning, maybe even a scifi looking shield made of ionized plasma emitting from the hull of the ship. Maybe even an artificial aurora borealis... who knows? Point is, with a powerful enough magnetic fields and precise control, along with a way to ionize surrounding air, you can VTOL anywhere there is sufficient atmosphere.

Once air gets too thin you switch to rocketry for orbit.

Pros: Any planet with an atmosphere you can VTOL without expending propellant. Also with precise control over the magnetic field and ionized air interaction, you could use it to literally thrust vector in ANY direction you want, since the air is your reaction mass and the engine is rhe magnetic fields emanating from the ship while the fuel is the power source.

Cons: Do not try landing on the moon unless your ship is equipped with beefy landing thrusters and propellant to match. Also do not engage fighter jets scifi style in the air on earth while using the magnetic lift propulsion. You would likely lose... hard. Since every bullet and missile shot in your direction... if ferromagnetic at all... wouls ruin your day once it got near you. It would'nt likely miss. Also because of ionization, your ship is literally leaving an ozone trail in the atmosphere in it's wake, but that would fade in time so long you did'nt go crazy with thousands of mag lifters flying everyday continuously.

 

You may discuss. Anything I missed? Or perhaps you know about this subject. Thank you.

 

 

 

Edited November 3, 2019 by Spacescifi

[farmerben]

I believe it is possible to lift 100m diameter helmholtz coils with balloons.  

A ship could fly through them like sonic the hedgehog.  The coil fields can switch direction when the ship passes through.   Magnetic fields do no work, but the batteries for the coils do a lot.  

Superconducors need cooling.  Liquid hydrogen is fairly easy to lift using gaseous hydrogen ballons, but they could only be used for a short period of time.  

[sevenperforce]

Everything else aside....

Is the mechanism for doing all of this going to be cheaper and lighter than simply lofting a rocket into the stratosphere with a bunch of helium balloons?

Because if not, we'd already be using helium balloons for launch assist if such a thing was feasible.

[Spacescifi]

6 hours ago, farmerben said:

I believe it is possible to lift 100m diameter helmholtz coils with balloons.  

A ship could fly through them like sonic the hedgehog.  The coil fields can switch direction when the ship passes through.   Magnetic fields do no work, but the batteries for the coils do a lot.  

Superconducors need cooling.  Liquid hydrogen is fairly easy to lift using gaseous hydrogen ballons, but they could only be used for a short period of time.  

 

Such a system could be used for a kind of networked floating orbital launch ring system. Granted you would have to use helium or something, but you could save propellant that way and tether the network to the ground.

Rocket could clear the lower atmosphere without propellant and engage rockets higher up.

5 hours ago, sevenperforce said:

Everything else aside....

Is the mechanism for doing all of this going to be cheaper and lighter than simply lofting a rocket into the stratosphere with a bunch of helium balloons?

Because if not, we'd already be using helium balloons for launch assist if such a thing was feasible.

Cheap is of less concern in scifi.

Nonetheless... nitrogen is weakly repelled by magnetism whereas oxygen is weakly attracted.

With an uber field you could blow air with magnetic fields alone while the oxygen separated from the nitrogen.

Sonething tells me if electricity arcs are in play that the oxygen might combust though... which might be a problem (explosion).

Magneto would probably be on fire... as would probably any ship using an uber magnetic field with electricity arcing from it.

 

Edited November 4, 2019 by Spacescifi