[Baron Munchausen]

Originally posted by Puke:
saw this stuff a while ago. was this thing related to the electromagnetic plasma-bubble thing that they were thinking could be used as a solar sail? take it up and down on the fly, no rips or tears from being hit by micro-meteroids, spiffy-spiffiness.

The Plasma Sail is different from what that article is discussing. Yes, they are working on making a 'solar sail' that uses a magnetic field holding a field of plasma around the space ship. Not only is it immune to getting torn up by micro meteorites but it will have constant propulsion value out to the heliopause. As the craft gets further from the sun, the pressure of solar wind is less and the sail expands until it reaches equilibrium. So, the pressure it exerts, the propulsion force, is constant!

This article he is pointing to is about 'cold' plasma, which is different. It's some way of maintaining a soup of shattered atoms (electrons & nuclei) flying around without needing tens of thousands of degrees of heat. Normally a plasma would be so hot it would burn anything it touched and has to be contained with magnetic fields. The real reason that a space ship might be able to use the 'plasma sail' is that in space it can be very, very low pressure and even if it's hot it can't transmit very much heat to the craft itself. This technology makes it actually possible to use a plasma in the atmosphere because it doesn't have to be so incredibly hot, which would be near impossible to maintain in the atmosphere.

[ July 12, 2002, 20:42: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]