Direct Fusion Drive for Fast Mars Missions with the Orion Spacecraft Michael Paluszek James Slonaker Joseph Mueller Yosef Razin FISO Telecon 07-23-2013 Presenter: Dr.
Download ReportTranscript Direct Fusion Drive for Fast Mars Missions with the Orion Spacecraft Michael Paluszek James Slonaker Joseph Mueller Yosef Razin FISO Telecon 07-23-2013 Presenter: Dr.
Direct Fusion Drive for Fast Mars Missions with the Orion Spacecraft Michael Paluszek James Slonaker Joseph Mueller Yosef Razin FISO Telecon 07-23-2013 Presenter: 1 Dr. Joseph Mueller Senior Technical Staff Princeton Satellite Systems Outline 2 11/6/2015 Problems with Going to Mars Radiation! - Equivalent of a CT scan a week Free Fall - Muscle atrophy Bone weakness Cardiovascular problems Vision problems Tight quarters make it difficult to exercise Boredom - The past unmanned Martian missions have taken over 8 months We have to get there fast!! 3 11/6/2015 Getting to Mars 1/11 Earth-Mars Roundtrip Design 1 MW 100 MW (five 20MW modules) Fusion products of the deuterium-helium-3 (D/He3) reaction have a very high exhaust velocity: 25,000 km/s However, they produce almost no thrust! We can convert some of their kinetic energy into thrust by slowing down some of the fusion products. The DFD design envelope fits between traditional chemical, electric and nuclear propulsion methods. 4 11/6/2015 Getting to Mars 2/11 Three options: - Really low thrust – milli Newtons - Ion engines, Hall thrusters, solar sails Really high thrust – tens of thousands of Newtons Nuclear thermal Chemical - Moderate thrust – hundreds of Newtons Direct Fusion Drive (DFD) VASIMR (RF heated plasma thruster) 5 11/6/2015 Getting to Mars 3/11 Mission design: ∆V and the Rocket Equation Fraction of structure Proportional to fuel mass Mass of fuel Exhaust Velocity of Engine Total Velocity Change Thrust Mass of Everything but Fuel Power Engine efficiency • The power equation 6 11/6/2015 Getting to Mars 4/11 Total mass is critical Cost is proportional to mass 7 11/6/2015 Getting to Mars 5/11 Really low thrust leads to a spiral trajectory This trajectory takes 6 years one way and has a ∆V of 5.6 km/s Mission Totals: - 12 years - ∆V of 11.2 km/s 8 11/6/2015 Getting to Mars 6/11 High thrust- Hohmann Transfer - - Ignite chemical or nuclear thermal engines near the Earth Coast for ½ orbit Fire engines at Mars Change in velocity (∆V) is 5.4 km/s - A little better than low thrust Total mission 975 days 258 days in transfer orbit one way 459 days waiting to return 9 Total ∆V of10.8 km/s 11/6/2015 Getting To Mars 7/11 Moderate Thrust - Direct Fusion Drive - Continuous Thrust Optimization Total ΔV of 106.7 km/s Total trip time of 277.5 days (Outbound transfer is 186.2 days) 10 11/6/2015 Getting to Mars 8/11 Moderate Thrust - Direct Fusion Drive - Impulsive Lambert solution (Ideal) Total ΔV is 57.1 km/s Total mission time is 244 days - Modified Lambert from impulsive to fixed burns Burn, coast, burn transfer Burns in same radial and tangential directions Constant acceleration, variable thrust 11 11/6/2015 Getting to Mars 9/11 Modified Lambert Results - - Total ΔV of 60.02 km/s Total trip time of 307.8 days (Outbound transfer is 198.2 days) Total mass of 120.7MT 130 MT max for SLS launch 12 11/6/2015 Getting To Mars 10/11 Orbital Transfer Comparison Type of Trajectory Low Thrust – Spiral Trajectory High Thrust – Hohmann Transfer DFD Continuous Thrust Lambert Solution (Ideal, not attainable) Modified Fixed Burn Lambert Roundtrip ΔV (km/s) 11.2 10.8 106.7 57.1 60.02 Total Trip Time 12 years 975 days 277.5 days 244 days 307.8 days 13 11/6/2015 Getting to Mars 11/11 Future Work - Optimization of variable thrust Most likely a burn, coast, burn transfer Need thrust vector targeting during burns - 14 Keep total mass under 130 MT Decrease flight time further due to health risks 11/6/2015 Direct Fusion Drive 1/3 Collaboration between the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and Princeton Satellite Systems - Invented by Dr. Samuel Cohen of PPPL Experiment running at PPPL! 15 11/6/2015 Direct Fusion Drive 2/3 Field Reversed Configuration (FRC) - Simple geometry - Easy to build Heating with rotating magnetic fields - Limits size to 1 to 20 MW which is ideal Confinement with superconducting coils – rings around center axis Magnetic nozzle Burns deuterium and 3He - Could use just deuterium Lower neutron emissions Add D to augment thrust Very high exhaust velocity - up to 25,000 km/s - H2/O2-4.6 km/s, nuclear thermal Hall thruster-20 km/s, Ion-90 km/s Low Radiation 16 Fuel Injector 11/6/2015 Direct Fusion Drive 3/3 As part of our collaboration with PPPL, Princeton Satellite Systems has licensed two fusion patents from Princeton University. We also participated in the PPPL Open House to showcase the DFD and its Mars mission - 17 Many budding astronauts were ready to sign up! June 1, 2013 11/6/2015 Challenges of Direct Fusion Drive Need to demonstrate a burning plasma - - Will be done in PFRC-4 Fusion power demonstrated in Tokamaks – 10.7 MW in the Princeton Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) and 16 MW in the Joint European Torus Need to get Helium-3 - Not that much needed for spaceflight, terrestrial sources have enough to support Mars exploration Must minimize engine mass - Need high power per unit mass Need ways to startup the reactor in space Long duration cryogenic fuel storage in space Need all the supporting hardware to be low mass and have high reliability - Ideally last for multiple missions Radiation shielding - 18 Neutrons (but not too many) Bremsstrahlung – x-rays 11/6/2015 DFD-Based Space Transportation Network DFD-powered space station 3He mined on Moon, transported to station by DFD-powered crafts Supports robotic missions, such as asteroid deflection and outer planet exploration Human missions to Mars, Asteroid Belt, and the Inner Planets 19 11/6/2015 The Mars Mission Orion Spacecraft Under development by NASA DFD Transfer Vehicle 20 NASA Space Launch System 11/6/2015 Mars Spacecraft Design Five 6 MW DFD engines on DFD 21 Transfer Vehicle (TV) Orion spacecraft Dual radiator wings 32 cryogenic tanks for deuterium Cryogenic tank for helium-3 11/6/2015 Landing Mission Aerodynamic braking 22 initially LO2/LH2 engines for landing and takeoff Orion spacecraft as the crew module Carries habitat for Mars stay Rendezvous with DFD TV in low Mars Orbit Requires its own transfer stage 11/6/2015 How Do We Get There? $58M to get to PFRC-4 via PFRC-3 - Burning plasma in PFRC-4 - $10M/5 years PFRC-3, $48M/8 years PFRC-4 - Demonstrate magnetic nozzle - Demonstrate thrust augmentation - Demonstrate power generation - A lot of physics still needs to be done PFRC-3 in space - Demonstrate space qualified components - Validate estimates of specific power - Test all systems without signficant fusion Mars orbital mission with single SLS launch Build DFD space infrastructure 23 Space station, Moon mining base, Mars lander 11/6/2015 2032? 24 11/6/2015 For More Information Joseph Mueller [email protected] Michael Paluszek [email protected] James Slonaker [email protected] Dr. Gary Pajer [email protected] Yosef Razin [email protected] Dr. Samuel Cohen [email protected] Princeton Satellite Systems 6 Market St. Suite 926 Plainsboro, NJ 08536 (609) 275-9606 http://www.psatellite.com/research/fusion.php 25 11/6/2015