Female physicist devises new fusion rocket that could take the first humans to Mars

Dr. Fatima Ebrahimi, who works for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), has invented a new fusion rocket that could take humans to Mars one day.

The device uses magnetic fields to shoot plasma particles from the back of the rocket and propel the craft through space.

Using magnetic fields, scientists can adjust the amount of propulsion for a specific mission and astronauts change the thrust as they fly to distant worlds.

Ebrahimi’s innovation will also take heroes to the Red Planet ten times faster than current rockets that use the electric fields to propel the particles.

“I’ve been cooking this concept for a while,” says Ebrahimi.

“I had the idea in 2017 when I was sitting on a deck thinking about the similarities between the exhaust of a car and the high-speed exhaust particles.”

“During its action, these tokamak produce magnetic bubbles, called plasmids, that move about 20 kilometers per second, which to me look a lot like shock.”

Fusion is the force that drives the sun and stars, and combines light elements in the form of plasma.

Plasma is the warm, charged state of matter made up of free electrons and atomic nuclei that represent 99 percent of the visible universe – and are capable of generating massive amounts of energy.

Scientists have been working all the time to replicate fusion in a laboratory, hoping to harness the power to produce electricity for rockets traveling through deep space.

Current plasma propellants that use electric fields to drive the particles can only produce low specific impulse or speed.

But computer simulations performed on PPPL computers and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, a DOE office for science user facilities at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, have shown that the new plasma thruster concept can generate exhaust fumes. with speeds of hundreds of kilometers per second, 10 times faster than those of other drivers.

The faster velocity at the start of a spacecraft’s journey could bring the outer planets within reach of astronauts, Ebrahimi said.

“Long-distance travel takes months or years because the specific impulse of chemical rocket engines is very low, so the vessel takes a while to start quickly,” she said.

“But if we make propellants based on magnetic reconnection, we can conceivably complete long-distance transmissions in a shorter period of time.”

Although the use of mergers to power rockets is not a new concept, Ebrahimi’s thruster differs from leading devices in three ways.

The first is that changing the strength of the magnetic fields can increase or decrease the impact force, which can move better through the dark abyss in space.

“By using more electromagnets and more magnetic fields, you can actually turn a knob to refine the velocity,” Ebrahimi said.

Second, the new screw produces motion by ejecting both plasma particles and magnetic bubbles known as plasmoids.

The plasmids give power to the propulsion, and no other thrust concept contains it.

The final difference between the concept of Ebrahimi and others, however, is that it uses magnetic fields to shoot plasma particles from the back of the rocket – space-proven devices that use electric fields.

The use of magnetic fields can be a game changer, as it allows scientists to adjust the amount of driving force for a specific mission.

“While other propellants require heavy gas, made from atoms like xenon, you can use any type of gas you want in this concept,” Ebrahimi said. In some cases, scientists prefer light gases because the smaller atoms can move faster.