Mini-Magnetospheric Plasma Propulsion

Mini-Magnetospheric Plasma Propulsion (M2P2)

Space Propulsion at the University of Washington

Investigators

R. M. Winglee, Dept. Earth and Space Sciences
P. Euripides, Dept. Earth and Space Sciences
T. Ziemba, Aeronautics and Astronautics
Louis Giersch, Aeronautics and Astronautics
J. Slough, Aeronautics and Astronautics

Flash Movie provided by Matt Conway (7 MBytes for PCs)

Discover Aerospace Award 2001

Space.com news article 2002

Space.com news article 2001

Other Articles of M2P2 in the News

Technical Information

What's behind the M2P2

Mini-Magnetospheric Plasma Propulsion (M2P2) is an advanced plasma propulsion system that will enable spacecraft to attain unprecedented speeds, with minimal energy and mass requirements. It will create a large scale magnetic bubble around the spacecraft to ride the solar winds, and accelerate the spacecraft to unprecedented speeds.

A new large chamber has recently been installed at the University of Washington for continued prototype testing. The new chamber has 10 times the volume of our initial change and more easily allows the inflation to be optimized without strong wall interactions.

Video clip of a recent inflation experiment taken in the new chamber

A short clip showing another inflation experiment

Artists impression of a mini-magnetosphere deployed around a spacecraft. Plasma or ionized gas is trapped on the magnetic field lines generated onboard, and this plasma inflates the magnetic field much like hot air inflates a balloon. A 7 MB animation of the inflation can be seen through this link. The mini-magnetosphere is then blown by the plasma wind from the Sun called the solar wind which has a speed of between about 350 to 800 km/s.

Test of the prototype being developed at the Univ. of Washington were recently performed at the large vacuum chamber at Test Are 300 at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. These tests allow the expansion over some 16 ft or nearly 50 times the magnet radius to be studied.

A short clip showing the trajectory of M2P2.

Two examples of making large scale magnetic bubbles in the Test Area 300 using the Univ. of Washington Prototype

Want More? See the Movies of Test Results and computer simulations showing the device in operation.

Mini-Magnetospheric Plasma Propulsion / winglee@geophys.washington.edu

Last modified: Tue Aug 27 11:07:46 PDT 2002

	A new large chamber has recently been installed at the University of Washington for continued prototype testing. The new chamber has 10 times the volume of our initial change and more easily allows the inflation to be optimized without strong wall interactions.
	Video clip of a recent inflation experiment taken in the new chamber
	A short clip showing another inflation experiment
	Artists impression of a mini-magnetosphere deployed around a spacecraft. Plasma or ionized gas is trapped on the magnetic field lines generated onboard, and this plasma inflates the magnetic field much like hot air inflates a balloon. A 7 MB animation of the inflation can be seen through this link. The mini-magnetosphere is then blown by the plasma wind from the Sun called the solar wind which has a speed of between about 350 to 800 km/s.
	Test of the prototype being developed at the Univ. of Washington were recently performed at the large vacuum chamber at Test Are 300 at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. These tests allow the expansion over some 16 ft or nearly 50 times the magnet radius to be studied.
	A short clip showing the trajectory of M2P2.