Please take a moment to consider this:
Pepin Magnetic Propulsion, (PMP) is an evolutionary inter planetary drive concept. Rather than accelerating on board matter, to “push” the ship by the Newtonian reaction, PMP would use magnetic fields, as a boat does oars, to propel the ship forward by pushing on the Sun’s solar wind. The upper limit of speeds that could be achieved are relativistic, because there are no moving parts, all the work is done by electronics and magnetic fields. One of the primary advantages of this concept is that propulsion could be constant half way to the destination, at which point the ship goes zero G for a moment as it turns, then decelerates the second half of the journey. This would cut down travel times and if the acceleration is sufficient can mitigate some of the effects of zero G. Another advantage to the PMP concept, is that the magnetic fields necessary to gather and accelerate solar wind would also dramatically lower the ionizing radiation load on the passengers, just as the Earth’s magnetic field shield’s it’s inhabitants. While the advantages are very real and very enticing, the technological advances needed to build such a system are large.
The first technological hurdle would be the magnetic field engineering:
To design and test a system, that both projects a magnetic field like an oar, and operates effectively as an oar, but on the solar wind has never been done. Although the solar wind is a wisp. Even if you could only grab a few dozen ionized hydrogen atoms hard enough, to accelerate them to a speed fast enough, that in and of itself would impart a fair amount of momentum, not due to the mass accelerated but the speed accelerated to. The closer to the speed of light particles could be accelerated to, the more efficient the drive would be. Perhaps a secondary magnetic filed could be focused to make a magnetic fulcrum… like an oarlock. Then even if coils were used to generate and move the primary field, the extended field beyond the secondary field’s fulcrum would be much faster. It might initially be the case, the PMP driven ship need be surrounded by a large cylindrical magnetic field reflector, several meters out… to improve the efficiency of the system. It would have it’s own engineering difficulties but might make the magnetic engineering much easier. There is the possibility that a type of oscillating “propeller” type of magnetic field may be the most efficient. By forcefully “knocking” solar wind, rather than gathering and accelerating it to high velocity, and extending much further out and so effecting much more solar wind, this system could be very efficient. Others will probably think of even more efficient ways to accomplish the magnetic field engineering.
The second technological hurdle would be generation of the enormous amounts of electricity it would take to operate such a system. While no propellant would be needed it would require electrical energy to generate the magnetic fields.
Nuclear reactors immediately jump to mind. The technology used in nuclear submarines is mature and safe. Since no propellant would need to be carried, only fuel for the reactor, the ship could operate for years, traveling from planet to planet, without needing to be refueled. Large fuel cells could be effective in that they would have the benefit of being fairly efficient and using hydrogen which will probably be available in orbit at sometime in the future. The technology is far from mature and would need further investment. Fusion would be ideal but is way too far in the future to be a possibility at this stage, heck, we
may get zero point energy first!
The third technological advance needed would be to protect the passengers from any negative effects of the magnetic fields:
Clearly, exposure to the extreme magnetic fields required to grab and accelerate solar wind sufficient to impart thrust, are not something that would be conducive to a long life. While this may seem like a daunting task we must remember that magnetic fields are easily manipulated, especially by ferrous objects. A thin skin of some strongly magnetic substance like neodymium, surrounding the passenger compartments, would possibly channel the fields safely away. While this approach would add mass to the ship, by becoming magnetized by the surrounding fields, it would be a very effective shield against solar eruptions. Perhaps the primary magnetic fields can be manipulated in such a way by the secondary’s that the passengers are not effected. This would be the most elegant approach, in that it would not add mass and suggests a much greater understanding of the technology.
The fourth engineering hurdle would be communication while the drive is active:
All radio communications would be negatively effected by such powerful magnetic fields. While the fields the ships’ passengers would be exposed to could be mitigated in a number of ways, communications to the outside world by radio would be next to impossible. Line of sight pulsed laser might be an alternative to radio while the drive is active. The technology is relatively mature in the fiber optic telecommunications industry and the crossover engineering should be minimal.
All other technologies required to build a strictly interplanetary craft utilizing PMP technology are in common with any other attempt to travel to another planet… while PMP would mitigate some of the most vexing. PMP would effectively stop the exposure to dangerous charged solar wind, if it can be made efficient enough to generate sufficient thrust, it would mitigate the negative effects of weightlessness on spacefarers, and any space ship constructed with this technology could be used to travel anywhere in the solar system… opening up the asteroids for mining, Mars for colonizing, the gas giants for exploration, the Kupier Belt for science and God knows what else.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
