An Alfvenic reconnecting plasmoid thruster

Abstract

A new concept for generation of thrust for space propulsion is introduced. Energetic thrust is generated in the form of plasmoids (confined plasma in closed magnetic loops) when magnetic helicity (linked magnetic field lines) is injected into an annular channel. Using a novel configuration of static electric and magnetic fields, the concept utilizes a current-sheet instability to spontaneously and continuously create plasmoids via magnetic reconnection. The generated low-temperature plasma is simulated in a global annular geometry using the extended magnetohydrodynamic model. Because the system-size plasmoid is an Alfvenic outflow from the reconnection site, its thrust is proportional to the square of the magnetic field strength and does not ideally depend on the mass of the ion species of the plasma. Exhaust velocities in the range of 20 to 500 km/s, controllable by the coil currents, are observed in the simulations.

Accepted in Journal of Plasma Physics

References in corpus (5)

• Instability of current sheets and formation of plasmoid chains
• A catastrophe model for fast magnetic reconnection onset
• General Theory of the Plasmoid Instability
• Onset of Fast Reconnection in Hall Magnetohydrodynamics Mediated by the Plasmoid Instability
• Dynamo-driven plasmoid formation from a current-sheet instability

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Onset of Plasmoid Reconnection during Magnetorotational Instability