Hitching a Ride on a Magnetic Bubble

If polywell fusion is developed, in what ways will the world change for better or worse? Discuss.

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jowey styxx
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Joined: Sun Nov 30, 2008 6:33 pm

Hitching a Ride on a Magnetic Bubble

Post by jowey styxx »

Hitching a Ride on a Magnetic Bubble was proposed by Dr. Robert Winglee in this 2000 NASA post. Since then there have been a few Solar Storms. Looking around prompted me to look up Dr. Bussard, his great Google presentation and find this informative forum.

Given my "limited" understanding of the Polywell construction and Dr. Winglee's M2P2 there appeared to be a match of technologies. I am so far out of this field that I just figured that I would bring it up.

Riding Solar Winds on magnetic sails sounds so cool, no meteor damage to the sails, protection from radiation.... Tacking and returning might pose a slight problem and may be the reason that Dr. Winglee proposed the Magbeam which I notice has been mentioned on this forum....

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Glad that the Navy continued funding for the Polywell effort. Keep up the great work....

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qraal
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Re: Hitching a Ride on a Magnetic Bubble

Post by qraal »

The Mag-Beam is definitely a better option for a lot of reasons, but manipulating plasma to create a defense against the solar wind and cosmic rays is a worth-while goal of Winglee & co's research. Though both Polywell and Plasma-sails use plasma there really isn't a lot of technology cross-over.

That being said, if a plasma-magnet can be used as a sail in a relativistic plasma flow, then it the dream of a Mag-Beam for interstellar propulsion might be realised. Polywells could be used to power the Mag-Beam launcher and used for braking propulsion at the destination when the relative speed is too low for a plasma-magnet to remain effective. The two systems synergise together quite well in that context.
jowey styxx wrote:Hitching a Ride on a Magnetic Bubble was proposed by Dr. Robert Winglee in this 2000 NASA post. Since then there have been a few Solar Storms. Looking around prompted me to look up Dr. Bussard, his great Google presentation and find this informative forum.

Given my "limited" understanding of the Polywell construction and Dr. Winglee's M2P2 there appeared to be a match of technologies. I am so far out of this field that I just figured that I would bring it up.

Riding Solar Winds on magnetic sails sounds so cool, no meteor damage to the sails, protection from radiation.... Tacking and returning might pose a slight problem and may be the reason that Dr. Winglee proposed the Magbeam which I notice has been mentioned on this forum....
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D Tibbets
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Post by D Tibbets »

I like this concept because as you travel further from the Sun, the generated magnetically contained plasma bubble automatically expands, thus compensating for the inverse square dropoff in the solar wind. You have the same amount of thrust wether you are 10,000,000 miles from the Sun, or 1,000,000,000 miles away- so long as you are within the Sun's magnetosphere. If the plasma leakage can be controlled so that the tankage need not be too large, then a Polywell would make a good power source for the system. If the leakage of ions out of the magnetically contained plasma is in excess of the consumption of atoms/ ions for a Polywell driven reaction rocket engine, there would not be any advantage, unless other spacecraft weight concerns are dominate. Such a plasma field may also have some shielding benifits in solar system or interstellar high speed flight, at least against interstellar hydrogen ions (or protons in the Solar wind). Could the system ionize neutral hydrogen gas and deflect it before it reached the spacecraft? This is entering the realm of Bussard's Ramscoop concept.


Dan Tibbets
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