Digest Number 506

>
>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?
>
Maybe some ideas here but not the one I think you are looking for. I
can see the article in my mind but didn't find it either. University
of Washington is doing work in this area and maybe someone on one of
these pages might have an answer.

Larry Kellogg
http://www.psfc.mit.edu/ldx/default.html
Might have some leads.

http://www.aa.washington.edu/strategicplan/page/sp12.html
The department is also one of the U.S. leaders in the study of fusion
schemes alternate to the tokamak, and has one of the two or three
largest university programs in this area. We also lead the U.S.
effort, and the world effort, in the Field Reversed Configuration
(FRC) confinement scheme, which has been pursued over the last two
decades primarily in the U.S., Japan, and Russia. At our off-campus
Redmond Plasma Physics Lab (RPPL) we are developing a highly
promising method of generating and sustaining FRCs using rotating
magnetic fields (RMF) to drive synchronous toroidal electron currents
in much the same manner as used in an induction motor to drive the
rotor. If this method proves successful, it could lead to a
breakthrough in simpler, more economic, fusion energy, as well as
having applications to space propulsion.

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast04oct%5F1.htm
Hitching a Ride on a
Magnetic Bubble

Scientists from the University of Washington and NASA are
experimenting with miniature magnetospheres as an innovative form of
space transportation.

http://www.anutech.com.au/asi/helicon.htm#anchor821104
HELICON PLASMA SOURCE

The Helicon Plasma Source is a device for creating a high
ion-density plasma using capacitive coupling. The source consists of
a quartz or glass cylinder around which is wrapped a Helicon antenna.
If a static magnetic field is added to the system, then both
inductive coupling, and helicon-wave coupling can be
used to create the plasma. The Helicon Plasma Source was designed by
Dr. Rod Boswell.
--
Larry R. Kellogg
lkellogg@...
http://lunar.arc.nasa.gov