Magneto Dynamo Plasma Engine

[delta2112]

I'd like to know how performant are the magneto dynamo plasma engine when plasma is accelerated with an external magnetic field and the internal electric field is just used for ionization.

 

[luxor]

MPD are very good,high exhaust velocity and so you need very little gas to feed it,but the main problem is that you need a lot of power to have some newton of thrust.

 

[delta2112]

Do you know the order of magnitude of multiplication factor between the MPD accelerated by ionization current, ant those accelerated with external toroidal fields?

Would it be possible to use them also for take-offs? As normal operation the electric engines are power limited, but specific impuls can be huge compared to chemical engines. Nevertheless the later is the only capable nowdays to defeat the gravitational force as they have a better trust, isn't it?

 

[luxor]

I'll check the data and write soon.
Right now it is impossible to take off from earth with an electric thruster.

 

[JayMaechtlen]

AFIK, right now (best present technology) you would be doing well to take off from an asteroid with an electric thruster!

(very poor thrust/weight ratio, and does require vacuum for operation, right?) Jay Maechtlen

 

[morgothia]

Most do need vacume because the properties of highenergy plasmas is that when those particals hit any others they cool and lose energy from the collisons that is why you need magnetic confinement to create very high temp plasmas or lots of power plasmas will degrade very fast in an atmosphere just creating them in an atmoshpere is hard enuff.


morgothia