Magnetic beams could power swifter spacecraft

[ayoub_ibrahim]

Focused beams of plasma could rocket astronauts to Mars and back in just 90 days, say space researchers developing the concept for NASA. The idea could mean faster space travel around the solar system.

Firing a magnetised plasma beam of charged particles - or ions - at a spacecraft equipped with a magnetic sail could propel the craft forward at record speeds, according to Robert Winglee of the University of Washington in Seattle, US. Harnessing the magnetic force of repulsion between the sail and the beam would give the spacecraft its immense thrust.

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996543

[TransformX]

Sounds very interesting, but wouldn't the sun's radiation interfere with it ?

[Brian R.]

I wonder how they propose to counteract the force the beam expulsion would exert on the sending station at either end.

[Dr Mordrid]

Also called MagBeam this is very similar to Mini-Magnetospheric Plasma Propulsion (M2P2) with the difference being that the propulsive force is obtained from a man-made beam and not the solar wind.

http://www.ess.washington.edu/Space/propulsion.html

http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=232

Dr. Mordrid

[spadnos]

Originally posted by Brian R.
I wonder how they propose to counteract the force the beam expulsion would exert on the sending station at either end.

Not sure, but it may be possible to use specific orbits, so the propulsive force from the beam expulsion would counteract the attraction of the planet being orbited by the "driver". (they did mention that there would need to be an "acceleration station" at each end of the trip)

- Steve

[Paddy]

Originally posted by Brian R.
I wonder how they propose to counteract the force the beam expulsion would exert on the sending station at either end.

cant they just use a big anchor?

[High_Jumbllama]

And what what happen if they missed the end point of the trip? Maybe for cargo.

[Novdid]

Sounds very exciting!

[Marshmallowman]

I think the moon would make a very nice place to loacte the "beam station's".

The return journey or deceleration at the end could be tricky as HJ pointed out....It should be useful for "established space routes"

[High_Jumbllama]

Just imagine if you were off by a tenth of a degree. Then there's the innumerable smaller gravity wells to worry about. When we can map and model the interacting gravity fields of all the many objects in the solar system, solar wind, space dust, etc . . . then maybe this might work with an infinite improbablity drive.

[spadnos]

Originally posted by Marshmallowman
I think the moon would make a very nice place to loacte the "beam station's".

The return journey or deceleration at the end could be tricky as HJ pointed out....It should be useful for "established space routes"

Until it rotates or orbits "behind" earth. oops

- Steve