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#1 2004-08-12 20:07:57
- ERRORIST
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- From: OXFORD ALABAMA
- Registered: 2004-01-28
- Posts: 1,182
Re: Is Earths Magnetosphere acting like an ion trap?
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#2 2004-08-14 17:55:16
- SBird
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Re: Is Earths Magnetosphere acting like an ion trap?
Ah, Errorist, long time, no see!
Yes, the Van Allen radiation belts can basically be viewed as gigantic ion traps. They aren't very good radiation traps as the trapped ions eventually wander out but the sheer size of the magnetosphere enqures that it has a fair amount of radiation in it at any given moment.
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#3 2004-08-16 06:32:58
- ERRORIST
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- From: OXFORD ALABAMA
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Re: Is Earths Magnetosphere acting like an ion trap?
Perhaps a solar sail made of magnetic fields could propel an attached spacecraft?
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#4 2004-08-16 07:17:24
- Grypd
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- From: Scotland, Europe
- Registered: 2004-06-07
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Re: Is Earths Magnetosphere acting like an ion trap?
Do you mean using the Earths Van allen belt to power a spacecraft to go out of earth orbit.
VERY interesting idea i doubt that we could use crews on such a vessel but unmanned devices!
There has been plans to create "magnetic" sails to use the solar wind to sail spacecraft. The problem has always been power generation to create the fields of plasma that makes the vessels sails.
Chan eil mi aig a bheil ùidh ann an gleidheadh an status quo; Tha mi airson cur às e.
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#5 2004-08-16 12:41:23
- ERRORIST
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Re: Is Earths Magnetosphere acting like an ion trap?
Either that or just collect the Ions and use them for Ion propulsion.
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#6 2004-08-16 13:20:55
- C M Edwards
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Re: Is Earths Magnetosphere acting like an ion trap?
This could be a good idea for near-Earth applications.
How do the Van Allen belts compare to the solar wind? I know they have a comparable or higher ion density.
This is a cool idea. 
"We go big, or we don't go." - GCNRevenger
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#7 2004-08-16 15:32:08
- ERRORIST
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- From: OXFORD ALABAMA
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Re: Is Earths Magnetosphere acting like an ion trap?
Extract the ions from the magnetic field, and then use them for propulsion. As they are sucked out from the field a new stream of ions is constantly replacing them from the Sun.
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#8 2004-08-17 11:37:46
- SBird
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Re: Is Earths Magnetosphere acting like an ion trap?
Two problems with that idea, I'm afraid.
The first is that while the ion density is higher in the radiation belts, it's still very low. The radiation belts are characterized by the high energy of the particles rather than any exceptional density. The particles density is not much higher than the normal vacuum in orbit. Present technology simply can't gather meaningful amounts of material from high energy, low density sources like this.
The second is that the vast majority of the ions in the radiation belts are protons. For an ion drive, you need heavy ions like Xenon or Krypton. Protons are simply too light. An ion drive using protons would be terrible inefficient and low thrust.
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#9 2004-08-17 12:00:53
- SpaceNut
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- From: New Hampshire
- Registered: 2004-07-22
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Re: Is Earths Magnetosphere acting like an ion trap?
Probably another reason for low level of research being done with solar sails as well.
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#10 2004-08-27 00:03:19
- ERRORIST
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Re: Is Earths Magnetosphere acting like an ion trap?
An ion drive using protons would be terrible inefficient and low thrust.
What about a nuclear ion drive?
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