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MPD Thruster laboratory experiment
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Plasma engines provide challenging opportunities for the human race toward interplanetary space travel and transportation. Powerful electric propulsion combined with the recent technology of solar cells, solar dynamic generator, and space nuclear power reactor will be the most promising candidates for orbit-transfer vehicles (OTV) of near-earth missions as well as deep-space probes. The first space test onboard SFU aims at the verification of propulsive function of a magneto-plasma-dynamic (MPD) thruster system. Because this engine can create plasma of several-thousand degrees Celsius and can accelerate it to speeds far above those attained by conventional chemical rocket engines, future spacecraft will be able to accommodate bigger payloads and to travel to the Moon, Venus, Mars and beyond. |
