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Energy Sources for Propulsion To, and for Distributed Use On, Mars

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Energy Sources for Propulsion To, and for Distributed Use On, Mars id10495406 pdfMachine by Broadgun Software - a great PDF writer! - a great PDF creator! - http://www.pdfmachine.com http://www.broadgun.com Mehtapress 2015 Print - ISSN : 2319–9814 Journal of Online - ISSN : 2319–9822 SpFauclle pEapxerploration Full Paper WWW.MEHTAPRESS.COM Mitchell Swartz Energy sources for propulsion to, and for SPSR distributed use on, Mars Received : July 06, 2015 Accepted : August 12, 2015 Published : October 14, 2015 *Corresponding author’s Name & Add. Mitchell Swartz SPSR MORE POWER IS NEEDED Curiosity, in space, measured 1.8 millisieverts per day, with 97% from galactic cosmic rays and the rest from Mars is the future. How do we know that? Because solar particles. This is a very high level which is six times as many people signed up (202,586) for a associated with carcinogenesis and other unwanted one-way ride than did for the Affordable Care Act effects. In Mars, this exposure decreased to circa 0.7 which means that people would rather buy a ticket to millisieverts per day, similar to the exposure received the vast unknown than get healthcare as they age. on the International Space Station. What is holding back the transport of humans to Mars, Other dangers beyond the unwanted irradiation and its colonization, is energy. We need more powerful include biological changes from bone loss and muscle rockets to take people there quicker, and we need more atrophy to electrolyte changes. The goal is to decrease accessible, more portable distributed power sources the transit to Mars in less time than 3 months each for exploring, making outposts on, and terraforming way, compared to the 12 to 16 months, as it is now. of, the Martian surface. This paper briefly discusses present and soon-to-be available energy sources which Conventional chemical rockets are just too slow. New will make this possible. propulsion technologies are needed to make the trip The existing rocket technologies are simply too slow faster, and thus safer, and that is why more specific for explorations to the edge and beyond the solar impulse (Isp) is needed. Isp indicates the thrust per system, and too ephemeral to support colonization of kilogram of fuel and thus reflects the efficiency. The Mars. The reason for higher transit speed is too avoid actual propulsion power depends on the propellant’s unwanted irradiation of the colonists. NASA’s Mars weight and velocity when ejected. Science Laboratory in 2011 contained an onboard What exists today include conventional chemical Radiation Assessment Detector which measured technologies, fission and possibly fusion and photon irradiation of the craft during its journey. The measured drive systems. Figure 1 shows the energy density levels were significant and indicated that human (related to Isp) of the fuels. transfer to Mars requires either decreased transit times (to minimize exposure to galactic cosmic rays from MORE POWERFUL DISTRIBUTED ENERGY supernovae) or improved radiation shielding (to SOURCES ON MARS minimize exposure to solar particle events) or both. In The problem for tomorrow is powering a human terms of the exposure, on its way to Mars, the rover, operated Mars station. Distributed power sources for JSE 4(2) 2015 . Full Paper the colonization and terraforming of Mars have been without the harmful penetrating radiation emissions noted to be required, but as shown below, the energy and radioactive waste that characterize other (hot) levels are only sufficient for probes, not colonies. 3-5 fusion sources. His devices are multi-layered thin films kW seems an absolute minimal power requirement, of palladium and nickel in a heavy water solution. and the environmental impact will be closely Superconducting quantum interference devices monitored. (SQUID) have confirmed ultra-dense states of deuterons As we have seen over last few decades, initially, the within palladium crystal defects after repeated loading energy production and energy conversion systems will by deuterons from the heavy water. probably be a composite of conventional solar energy Dr. Mitchell Swartz and his associates, at Nanortech, systems, fuel cells and nuclear energy systems. Some Inc., have crafted these LANR devices into actual have proposed small hot fusion devices using inertial portable components. These would be useful for electrostatic confinement and cold fusion systems spaceflight and distributed energy source because they based on laboratory working systems. Others have are preloaded and driven by a DC electrical current. sought speculative theoretical (more questionable They have been shown in open demonstrations at MIT absent lab bench setups) techniques like quantum since 2012 and presently fabricated to perform at the vacuum propulsion, warp drive, space-time curvature multiwatt level. The excess energy gain compared to and gravity control devices, and imagined faster-than- driving input energy is up to 20 times input; light (FTL) technologies. characterized by reasonable reproducibility and What is needed is a cheap, plentiful, efficient energy controllability. production system, and these are the most likely Although small in size, the LANR excess power candidates, listed below in alphabetical order. density is more than 19,500 watts/kilogram of nanostructured material - with zero carbon footprint. ANTIMATTER CATALYZED FUSION Once harnessed, they could easily be used to drive PROPULSION electric propulsion systems. Antimatter propulsion (also called antimatter ELECTRIC PROPULSION SYSTEMS Catalyzed Fusion Propulsion) offers very fast accelerations and a large Isp. The first problem is that Electric propulsion systems are of several types. Ion although only 1 kg of antimatter would get the ship propulsion devices use materials, including noble gases, to Mars in an incredibly short time, the present like xenon, which are ionized and sent out of the back production rate of antimatter is only ~ 10 nanograms of the spacecraft to obtain forward thrust. The problem a year. The second problem is the need to consider is how to obtain the large power required (>10 what container to hold the fuel in, since antimatter megawatts). Hall thruster engines are similar, and move reacts severely with anything of ordinary matter. electrons using a magnetic field, creating a plasma thrust. Such plasma propulsion systems have already COLD FUSION (LANR, LENR) been tested on the asteroid-exploring Dawn spacecraft. Magnetohydrodynamic conversion can also generate Lattice assisted nuclear reactions [LANR, also known electrical power from the moving ionized plasma. 50% as cold fusion and LENR, low energy nuclear reactions] conversion can be achieved theoretically, but like use hydrogen-loaded alloys to create heat and other thermoelectrics this is experimentally closer to the products1 by enabling deuterium fusion to form an 15%. The problem is the need for high operating excited de novo helium nucleus at near room temperatures and high electrical conductivity of the temperature, under difficult-to-achieve conditions. The plasma. “excess heat” observed is energy derived from coherent A variant engine is the Variable Specific Impulse de-excitation of short-lived 4He* to its ground state Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR) which uses via the lattice phonons. In cold fusion, the alphas electromagnetic radiation to heat up and ionize argon, (generated helium) are borne non-energetic, making xenon or hydrogen which, in turn, is then directed by the systems highly clean and safe. magnetic fields for thrust. Prof. George Miley (U. of Illinois) has been pivotal in Guido Fetta has reportedly built a microwave thruster, suggesting and promoting cold fusion cells for use in based on Roger Shawyer’s EmDrive, which produces outer space. These cold fusion devices which generate thrust by amplification of radiation pressure of an nanoscopic amounts of de novo helium (He4) to electromagnetic wave in resonant waveguide. It produce portable devices in the watt to kilowatt range provides very low thrust and is believed to be a non- FP 202 Full Paper JSE 4(2) 2015 classical electromagnetic interaction. RTGs were used solely for heating, with electricity provided by solar cells. In the Russian Mars 96 small FUEL CELLS station power systems, RTGs were used with the rechargeable NicCd and Lithium batteries. For Alkaline fuel cells were used in Apollo and on the example in their Penetrators, the RTG output was Space Shuttle. But they are not an efficient energy 0.5 W (3.5 kg). Unfortunately, the Pu238 RTGs are production or energy storage system (Figure 1). The usually powered by plutonium, which is highly problems include poor efficiency during storage and radioactive and expensive to prepare and shield. then release of that energy which wastes about half of The HOMER (heat pipe operated Mars Exploratic the energy in that process. Reactor) is a proposed unit for Mars which uses fissile material driving a Stirling engine, all contained in a NUCLEAR FISSION small tee-pee shaped tent system. Larger nuclear fission systems include NERVA and Conventional nuclear energy production systems are Project Orion. Since the 1950s, NASA and U.S. of two types, fission and fusion. In fission, fissile Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) tested Nuclear elements (e.g. plutonium or uranium) have their heavy Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application, or NERVA nuclei divide. Today, from Earth to the edge of the for use in space. It was canceled in 1972 for costs and solar system, radioisotope thermoelectric generators because of the interest in stopping nuclear proliferation. (RTGs) provide heat which is converted to electricity Project Orion, Nuclear Pulse Propulsion, also uses on spacecraft, and these reactors have been shown to fission. The nuclear thermal rocket (NTR) uses fissile be useful in space for decades. One can obtain about 3 material to generate heat, again to superheat materials kilowatts of thermal energy for each 5.6 kilograms of which would then be ejected for thrust. Such nuclear radioactive plutonium, however RTGs have other thermal propulsion has hydrogen circle through the materials including shielding which yields a useful core of nuclear reactor, and the resultant hot gas specific power of about 25W/kg Plutonium.
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