I knew Dr. Dana Andrews about 13 years ago. He is one smart engineer. I hear good things about his son too.
Posted on 09/20/2007 8:42:20 PM PDT by anymouse
Andrews Space & Technology (AS&T) introduced an innovative propulsion system that could significantly shorten round trips from Earth to Mars (from two years to only six months!) and enable our spaceships to reach Jupiter after one year of space traveling. The system, which may dramatically affect interplanetary space travel is called the Miniature Magnetic Orion (Mini-Mag Orion for short), and is an optimization of the 1958 Orion interplanetary propulsion concept.
The original Orion project was headed by Ted Taylor from General Atomics, who together with the famous physicist Freeman Dyson suggested ejecting nuclear explosives behind a spacecraft in order to propel it forward. The Mini-Mag system uses a magnetic field in order to trigger an explosion of compressed material in the form of small pellets weighing several grams. This explosion, although being significantly weaker than a nuclear explosion, creates plasma that is directed through a magnetic nozzle to generate vehicle thrust. The proposed technology enables the production of thrust at high efficiency, hopefully allowing drastic reduction of interplanetary travel time. According to calculations performed by AS&T, this type of propulsion system can produce the same thrust as the Space Shuttle Main Engine, with 50 times more efficiency.
Due to the magnetic compression thrust technology, spacecrafts could be smaller and less heavy. The spacecraft itself will only have to carry a relatively small amount of fissionable material as fuel and will be able to reach speeds of approximately 10% of the speed of light. Dr. Dana Andrews, AS&T Chief Technology Officer and Mini-Mag Orion inventor, and Roger Lenard from the Sandia National Laboratories, have published a paper describing their research into the Mini-Mag Orion concept in the Acta Astronautica – Journal of the International Academy of Astronautics.
In the framework of their research into the subject, the scientists conducted an experiment that tested the process of compressing a simulated fissile material in a magnetic field. "The experiment validated the physical process behind the MMO concept, substantiating MMO's potential of enabling shorter interplanetary trip time for near-term space travel" - said AS&T Principal Investigator Ralph Ewig. "We are still far from constructing an actual vehicle, but the present research will chart the course for human missions to other planets in the near future. The Mini-Mag Orion system shows significant promise, and the successful completion of our experiment demonstrated the physics and validated our approach for a near-term, in-space, advanced propulsion system," said Dr. Andrews.
The MMO study has been funded by the NASA Phase II Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) and was conducted in cooperation with Sandia National Laboratories and the University of Washington’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
I knew Dr. Dana Andrews about 13 years ago. He is one smart engineer. I hear good things about his son too.
space ping
0.1C, holy moly! Alpha Centauri in 43 years!
Don't forget he acceleration and braking phases. Most high efficiency propulsion has really weak thrust.
Here they’re talking about levels of thrust comparable to an SSME. From the description, I wouldn’t be surprised if the thrust level vs. efficiency can be adjusted much like a VASIMR engine — high thrust, low effiency where you need thrust and low thrust, high efficiency during the cruise phase.
“0.1C, holy moly! Alpha Centauri in 43 years!”
A mere 42.78 years to the pilot!
will be able to reach speeds of approximately 10% of the speed of light———————————————————————67,061,662.92 mph / Obviously, this dude is smoking some good stuff !
Hang on to those suckers tight when you turn them on! Mine went through the durn ceiling on me.
Well, it’s no torch ship :-) but it’s a nice start to practicable interplanetary flight.
Hmmm, interesting. Of course we’ve long had ion propulsion with very low/slow but steady forces involved. I remember an earth to moon mission once that used it to s-l-o-w-l-y inch its way out of the terran gravity well and into the lunar gravity well. Its developer said that if oxygen and food had been available for weeks, even months, the apollo spacecraft could have gotten there on 1/4 the fuel.
Be as it may, this is still a theoretical concept, and finding FUNDING for it will be the BIG CLIMB out of the earth’s gravity well for it. Congress? Forget it. They’ve run us $9T in debt, no hope there.
Speaking of space propulsion concepts, have you heard of the magnetic sail? There you have a 1 km diameter ring of superconductor, about a pencil width in size. It sets up a dipole field and depending on orientation to the solar wind it either drops inward toward venus/mercury or outward to mars and beyond.
The dipole field also keeps out solar wind charged particles. A spider web of cables tie from the ring to a central cabin and merely by offsetting the cabin from the center you change the orientation.
Once in orbit then there is no fuel required, the solar WIND is your “fuel”, just as with the sailing ships of old. Anyway, I thought it was a neat idea(expressed in the science fact section of ANALOG sci-fi mag).
(It would be great if these space threads got hundreds of comments).
Moving a little slow here at the junction, but I agree.
No torch, but... 
give that man a cigar and pass me a wakeup beer!
LOL!
"... a relatively small amount of fissionable material as fuel ..."
... out in the navigable interplanetary spacelanes?
Have we forgotten about the announcement a few days ago about a much more efficient laser propulsion system? At least that couldn't be accused of polluting with anything more than light, and even that can be ameliorated by adjusting the pointing directions.
I'm inclined to sit back from the edge of my seat on this idea.
bump for later reading
The laser motor is very small and scaling up will not be easy.
Doesn't the STS ME produce a couple million pounds of thrust? Sounds pretty good.
It uses fissile material, but the explosion is non nuclear?
Gonna need some help with that one.
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