A Propulsion Method For Achieving Commercial Space Travel Part II

 M. A. Minovitch. (1997), JBIS, 50, pp.451-462

Refcode: 1997.50.451

Abstract:

Part 1 of this paper showed that the plasma acceleration principle known as electron cyclotron resonance can be utilized to generate a traveling repulsive magnetic field for accelerating a large, single-stage vehicle having a magnetic field over great distances to very high escape velocities. This can be achieved by designing the vehicle in the form of a circular airfoil with constant chord (a streamlined toroidal geometry), and mounting a thin-walled superconducting solenoid inside with the same mean radius to generate a large axial magnetic field.