Our current level of technological prowess is sternly hindering efforts to search the solar organization . Nine months to get to Mars — who ’s get that kind of sentence ? If a unexampled breed of ion thruster currently under development at the Australian National University is successful , we ’ll get to the Red Planet in a third of the clip .
The thrust is jazz as a Helicon Double Layer Thruster ( HDLT ) and is being developed with a $ 3.1 million ( AU ) subsidisation from the Department of Industry , Innovation , Science , Research and Tertiary Education . The SP3 Laboratory at Australia ’s National University ( ANU ) is collaborating with European firm EADS - Astrium and the Surrey Space Center on the engine design .
The ANU is presently make a examination facility at the the Mount Stromolo observatory to put the HDLT through its yard once complete . “ A number of Australian university teach aerospace and mechantronics . Up until now , there ’s been nowhere for them to test their spacecrafts – they have to go oversea , ” explicate chief investigator Professor Rod Boswell . “ So this will really be providing a major service , not only in Australia , but also in Southeast Asia . ” But what exactly is an HDLT ?
An HDLT is a variety ofion thrusterdesigned specifically for easiness and weight savings . It works just like other ion thruster — engender thrust by kick out charged particles — however it does so with no actuate function . or else , a gas ( either xenon or krypton ) is shoot into the source tube . The metro is pelt with 13.56 MHz radio waves emitted by a span of feeler enclose around the thermionic tube , which create a dual - bed electrical field that essentially acts as a nozzle , direct the flow of ion as it be the engine . These radio wave stimulate the gas pedal molecules to the point of plasmafication and they exit the source tube from its open end . AsANU explain , this double - layer is an intrinsical part of the pusher design :
Space tower Are precisely What They Sound Like
This double layer can be think of as a slight standing blow wave across which there exists a strong electrical sphere gradient . It is this galvanising field that accelerates ion from the source plasm to very gamey exhaust speed produce jab . Because the double layer is strictly the result of plasma density , organization and magnetised field geometry , no accelerating power grid are required . Also , because there is equal flux of electrons and positive ions from the thruster there is no need for a neutraliser . It is in this common sense that the HDLT is a “ true ” plasma thruster as it ejects adequate numbers of both irrefutable ions and minus electron .
This design is also quite helpful in that it accepts a wide variety of fuel generator , not just super - expensive noble accelerator pedal like xenon . grant to Boswell , “ There are no go parts or grids – this conception is just a piston chamber . All the authoritative parts that touch the propellent are either glass or ceramic . ”
That tractableness means means “ we can use any type of propellant , admit piddle , ” he toldthe Register . “ In the International Space Station , there ’s a system that pull up water from urine , know as the ‘ Russian piss - presser ’ . The result ends up with a pH around one – we could easily use that . Xenon is expensive – why not use what ’s already there ? ”
Its eloquent design also understand into significant fuel savings . Since power is only used to ab initio create the plasma and maintain the electric field , the HDLT just sips fuel . According to the ANU , “ The 0.5sccm of feed throttle represent a mass consumption of 160 mg / hr , so that a distinctive 5 hour burn mark would utilise 0.8 g of propellant . ” That ’s a immense savings over current - gen chemical substance thruster , which account for a Brobdingnagian majority of modernistic spacecraft weight , and can even be theoretically powered by on - board solar panels .
The plasm pusher was successfully bench tested in 2009 and 2010 . Both the final pusher prototype and the test lab are carry to be complete by 2013 , and a full scale test flight is being scheduled by the conclusion of 2014 . After that : Mars .
[ Gizmodo Au – ANU1,2 – The Register – Wikipedia – simulacrum : ANU ]
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