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ERRORIST

Member

From: OXFORD ALABAMA

Registered: 2004-01-28

Posts: 1,182

Re: Cold plasma acceleration

Why not use cold plasma for acceleration?

[http://www.odu.edu/ao/instadv/quest/ColdPlasma.html]http://www.odu.edu/ao/instadv/quest/ColdPlasma.html

GCNRevenger

Member

From: Earth

Registered: 2003-10-14

Posts: 6,056

Re: Cold plasma acceleration

Why would you want to? You can't accelerate a plasma with an electrostatic field like you can in an ion engine, the plasma itself has a low energy so it would have terrible exhaust velocity, and it would take alot of energy to create it for a very small thrust.

VASIMR, which is also a plasma rocket, achieves its high propellant efficency and thrust because of the HIGH temperature of the plasma, up to a million degrees potentially, which gives it extreme exhaust velocity.

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