snip

> >
>>Message: 1
>> Date: Tue, 30 Jul 2002 17:34:28 -0000
>> From: "victoriatangoman"
>>Subject: Looking for information
>>
>>I'm hoping that someone on this list can point me to the info I'm
> >looking for.
>>
>>About a year ago I came came across a website, I think it was NASA
>>affiliated, that described a technology in which energy is poured
>>into, I think it was a plasma, and with very little maintenance
>>energy, this plasma ring? served as a battery. Supposedly it had
>>pretty high theoretical energy density. You could pour immense
>>amounts of energy in, let's say at a re-fueling station in LEO, and
>>then use it as a means of propulsion for a sacecraft.
>>
>>I've been trying to find this web reference again, but my memory is
>>fuzzy and I'm just not able to find the correct search terms.
>>
>>Anybody else come across this same information?
>>
>>
>>
Larry Kellogg

This too is not the one I see but is what is being worked on for
Marshall Space Flight Center and has a number of PDF files that might
be of interest. Will keep looking. - LRK -

http://www.spacetransportation.com/sciresearch/adv_plas_prop.html
Advanced plasma propulsion harnesses high-energy sources and could
revolutionize human exploration and development of the solar system.
NASA Marshall's Propulsion Research Center is investigating fusion
and high-power, high-thrust plasma thrusters that could lead to rapid
interplanetary travel.

For the near term, high-power, high-efficiency plasma rockets are
required to work with solar electric and nuclear electric power
sources to achieve specific impulse (ISP) up to 10,000 seconds. A
high premium is placed on the efficiency of the plasma thruster due
to the practical constraints bounding the power-to-mass ratios of the
power sources.

Plasma thruster efficiencies greater than 50% are required, and
could lead to significant reduction in propellant mass and trip time,
resulting in a dramatic reduction in cost per mile per kg of space
travel.

Fusion reactions result in the production of an extremely hot and
electrically conducting plasma that may be manipulated magnetically
to produce thrust directly, without the intermediate steps of
converting the energy into electricity, which in turn needs to be
converted into thrust.
This would lead to further increase in the specific power of the
plasma rockets as well as specific impulse.
snip
There is a search function on the page and maybe something will come
back. It seemed like Dr. Tony Phillips had something on Science@NASA
but the topics in the archive didn't ring a bell except the one on
flying with a magnetic sail.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast04oct%5F1.htm

This site with a long list of players in the Plasma Field might be of
interest as well.
http://plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il/PlasmaI.html
http://science.nasa.gov/ssl/pad/sppb/

He also a list of the players in plasma technology.
http://www.plasmas.org/technology.htm

Larry Kellogg
--
Larry R. Kellogg
lkellogg@...
http://lunar.arc.nasa.gov

Thanks for the citations you provided. I've come across many of them
in this very frustrating search but a few were new.

I'm really tickling my memory to extract anything that I can to help
me, but when I read this article a year ago, I came across it
serendipitously, and thought it was very interesting, but it wasn't
on my search topic then, so it didn't remain vivid in my memory.

Now, I really want all of the details and I can't find any reference
to it. None. Arghh.

Here's what I recall, and I make no assurances as to accuracy. The
researcher wrote that they were able to pump energy into the plasma,
and with very little maintenance energy, they could keep it there.
They thought that they could get high energy densities. This was a
new line of research that didn't fit typical plasma research
efforts. They thought it would be a very efficient battery. I
remember thinking at the time that one could pump in a lot of
energy, let's say in LEO, and then launch the space ship. I thought
that this would be a very good propulsion device because rather than
carrying an electrical plant, or solar cells, to power an ion drive,
this energy dense plasma could power then ionization process.

I may have come across this webpage in a national laboratory site
instead of NASA. I'm quite sure that it wasn't VASIMR technology. It
wasn't at the U. Wisc. Fusion site, I thought it might be a the NASA
Glenn site, but no. Nor at Marshall, Kennedy, Johnson, U of Wash.

I'm starting to delve into Sandia, Livermore, Oak Ridge, Los Alamos
but not running into much that pertains.

I still can't properly identify the name of the technology, the
author, nor properly describe it!! It is so frustrating trying to
work from a memory fragment.

Again, thanks so much for your pointers. I promise, it'll be very
interesting reading if we can find it again. I hope they haven't
pulled the page because they consider it sensitive technology post
9/11.