Mini-Mag Orion Will Reach for the Stars

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 for one would be somewhat skeptical of using lasars as they are horribly inefficient, in the 1%-2% range(98%-99% of PE becomes waste heat). Correct me if I’m wrong on that. As to nuc-fuel you’ll always have contrarians who love to screw up technical advances just for the destructive fun of it. In the old USSR they used to put such folk in psychiatric hospitals...

Still though, this is but a theoretical concept, a small demo rocket would go a long way toward major funding. And it reminds me of that engineer who opined : give me all morning and I can think of at least 5 million dollar projects, give me all afternoon and I can think of at least 1 Billion dollar project; each and every DAY of the week.

NASA is the starved runt in the federal budget, and awash in ingenious “sperm” ideas like this. With the shuttle gobbling up virtually all of their budget, it’s a wonder that they get anything else done in space development.

The only reason I can see using fissile material is to get fission. I presume they're using the magnetic field to compress it (and maybe something else to excite it?) until they achieve fission. I'd like some clarification on this as well. Presumably they're ejecting a plasma in much the same way that a VASIMR does, but a VASIMR ejects hydrogen isotopes (read: lightweight) at high velocity. Does it makes more sense to eject heavy elements rather than light elements? Here's an investigation: I've never done this before, but let's see what we get:

kinetic energy k=1/2 mv²
momentum p=mv

Take two propellants, one with mass m₀ and another with mass am₀, each one being imparted with energy k:

k = 1/2 m₀v₀² = 1/2 m₁v₁² = 1/2 am₀v₁²

1/a v₀² = v₁²

p₁ = m₁v₁ = a/sqrt(a) m₀v₀ = a/sqrt(a) p₀

So if a > 1 (ejecting heavier mass), so is a/sqrt(a), and therefore p₁ > p₀. Therefore, on its face, it looks better to eject propellants with higher mass density (heavier elements) than lighter ones.

Now, there's a slight wrinkle: you're not just moving the rocket, but the unspent propellant. Let's say a=100, so the ratio in momentum is 100 / sqrt(100) = 10. Since the mass of the unspent propellant on the rocket is 100x as much as before, you're only imparting 1/10 the velocity to it as before. Someone please check my math here, but it looks like you actually suffer a severe net loss in velocity imparted to the spacecraft:

v₁ = v₀ (m_rocket + m_propellant) / [(a/sqrt(a)) (m_rocket + am_propellant)]

Now there's a lot more to this as the propellant on the rocket decreases over time so the velocity ratio should improve dramatically as its depleted (just as acceleration improves with any other rocket, assuming constant burn rate). There are well-established equations for calculating delta-V, but I don't know them off the top of my head. Basically I don't entirely get what they're doing here, and clarification would be nice. I can only imagine that the energy from the fission makes up for it.

First, possibly the Caloris Basin in Mercury. Sound strange? Think : By the TEDF theory mercury should be almost 100% refractories as it formed in the hot plasma nearest the sun during the T Tauri formation phase. That means a high %age of it should be GOLD. Since the Caloris impact excavated the surface to a great depth...and AU79 is the only stable isotope.

A few other points : Mecury(and Venus as well)has almost no spin. This comes from the natural prograde spinning vortex of a condensing planet in the dust lane(CCW)being counteracted by the solar magnetic B dot field(CW)which decreases by the inverse cube of radial distance. That B dot field was vital to the sun’s existence as a more or less sphere(to begin fusion on the main sequence). Thus the “robbing” of M and V’s planetary spin as the orbital radius was increased.

Thus the B dot field pushes infalling gas/dust BACK OUT, transferring its spin angular momentum into the orbital momentum of the planets. Thus the sun has less than 1/5000th the SAM of the entire solar system. This of course comes from the original Mother Molecular Birth Cloud : inner edge orbits the center of the galaxy faster than the outer edge.

Thus the MMBC has a vast amount of SAM that has to be shed as the cloud shrinks gravitationally(ice skater’s faster spin as she draws her leg/arms inward). Otherwise the proto-sun would remain a flattened lenticular disc, the inner core whizzing around at the speed of light(perhaps a torus of hot plasma like an accrteion disc).

Since most stars are single, SOMETHING must be in orbit around them, taking up all that initial MMBC SAM. Thus the universe is LOUSY with planetary systems, thus another look at the Drake Equation is warranted.

Back to Mercury. The surface should be at least mildly radioactive from 4.5B years worth of solar/cosmic radiation, bring your lead lined space suits along with your drilling equipment(and sun umbrella too for fixed installations).

Thus you’re a GOLD MINER like california 150 years ago, but the purpose here, for the USA, is to pay off our mountain of debt, mostly to the chinese, with GOLD. All empires in history began with GOLD, yes(roman, spanish, english, american...)? Hey, it’s not that I have any LUST for gold(the love of money is the root of all evil), it’s just that we could re-invigorate the american economy by paying off the mountain of debt we’ve run up with a mountain of mercurian GOLD. Did you know that all the GOLD in the world would make only a cube 50 feet on a side?

Mars? Forget it, antarctica’s antarctica, you’d freeze your bippy PRONTO there, as well as explode and become a freeze dried mummy. No, I’d check out the Kuiper belt as well as the outer moons(charon, triton, miranda, etc)for the H2O/N2 richest one, then put it in close orbit around venus(like our own moon, thus making a 2nd “earth” in the solar system. You’d shoot chunks of it at the venusian terminator, increasing its retrograde spin whilst adding vital life-giving H and N to its atmosphere.

This would be much like the wet terran aboriginal ring system that was perturbed out of orbit by our captured moon, coating the(venusian/volcanic)earth with a layer of wet gravel that became our future oceans/lightweight continents(lunar regolith and continental isotope ratios are identical in the REFRACTORY elements).

Thus, many millenia from now we would be playing a joke on a future venusian Galileo : why do all the other planets in the solar system spin the WRONG WAY? No wonder then we’re so special, we spin WESTWARD.

So did the Comstock load in NV, it financed the Hearst newspaper empire. But how much is silver worth per oz vs gold(or platinum)? Heck, even palladium is worth far more than silver. No, silver’s real value is that it is just about the best conductor, both at room temperature and HTS cryogenic temperatures. It alloys well, other industrial uses besides jewelry(which tarnishes of course).

It was even used in WWII when copper became almost unavailable. My father, an EE, told of how they used silver buss bars on a french ship they were building in WWII instead of CU buss bars. Then there was the manhatten project, they needed a LOT of CU : unavailable. The physicists called the treasury : how much silver do you have? They laughed themselves silly. An hour later they called back : how much do you need and where do you want it?(they got a call from the WH).

So, Athens got its start with AG, then along came the Romans w/AU; whose was the greater empire?

"First, possibly the Caloris Basin in Mercury. Sound strange? Think : By the TEDF theory mercury should be almost 100% refractories as it formed in the hot plasma nearest the sun during the T Tauri formation phase. That means a high %age of it should be GOLD. Since the Caloris impact excavated the surface to a great depth...and AU79 is the only stable isotope."

"Thar's gold in them thar ... pits?"

Didn't the quest for gold bankrupt the Spanish? Ordinary rocks on the Lunar surface are "worth more" in (electrical) potential energy than gold on Mercury.

Still, Mercury seems a good source for heavy metals in general, and they will certainly be useful. Good choice.

"I’d check out the Kuiper belt as well as the outer moons(charon, triton, miranda, etc)for the H2O/N2 richest one, then put it in close orbit around venus(like our own moon, thus making a 2nd “earth” in the solar system. You’d shoot chunks of it at the venusian terminator, increasing its retrograde spin whilst adding vital life-giving H and N to its atmosphere."

Venus can be made habitable a lot more quickly than that. Just don't go all the way down to the surface.

The atmosphere of Venus is so thick that a spot can be chosen to float a "balloon city", actually more of a bathysphere, where the temperature and pressure are comfortably Earth-normal. Because the gravity would be Earth normal too, it would make a great getaway spot for honeymooners and tourists. Picture a humongous "love-bubble" rather than love boat and you've got the picture.

In addition to scientific research and carbon fiber and nanotube production, workers on Venusian city bubbles could dredge the surface for building materials, (or for gold), or operate mining robots down below.

Although the universe is hydrogen, helium + some minor debris; Venus, because of the T Tauri solar system formation process, is devoid of H and He. It needs but H and N(primarily)to be a 2nd life bearing planet in the solar system.

Forget mars, it only has .11 earth mass, it’ll NEVER hold a 14.7 psi atmosphere, plus you’ll freeze your bippy there. Venus has .89 earth mass and surface oceans would have a mean temp of about 125 deg F, very WARM but not boiling. Add a shading RING system, high obliquity(tilt)and you’d have a terraformed planet. Then add a layer of charon-planetisimals about 20-50 km deep, and soon enough it would differentiate into oceans and lightweight continents similar to the earth environment today(hundreds of millions of years in the future).

Venus looks very unpromising now, but....

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