Air-Breathing Magneto-Deflagration Propulsion for Sustained Very Low Earth Orbit
Abstract
The proposed research program includes four main themes (i) construction of a modular thruster testbed, suitable for operation with a variety of cathode materials and also for the study of air plasma chemistry via THz spectroscopy. This effort includes the construction of a greatly improved plasma driver (a pulsed forming network); (ii) a computational and experimental study of the air harvesting inlet flow (and its effect on the Z-pinch behavior), which is a critical component of any RAM-based plasma accelerator scheme and perhaps a necessary component of this particular air-breathing plasma scheme if it is to operate at the higher range of VLEO altitudes; (iii) an experimental effort to understand the effect of air plasma constituents on cathode integrity; and (iv) studies of the stability of the Z-pinch plasma in complex air plasma flows with high repetition rate drive pulses.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jan 21, 2022
- Source ID
- FA95502110255XX0
Entities
People
- Thomas C Underwood
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- United States Air Force
- University of Texas at Austin