Defense Intelligence Reference Document MHD Air Breathing Propulsion And Power For Aerospace Applications

Defense Intelligence Agency · 32 pages · text from the file's own layer

This Defense Intelligence Reference Document from the Defense Intelligence Agency, dated 21 November 2010, was produced in FY 2010 under the Advanced Aerospace Weapons System Applications (AAWSA) Program. It reviews propulsion concepts that use plasmas and magnetohydrodynamics. It finds the Ajax MHD energy bypass concept meaningless below Mach 12 but calls a reverse energy bypass with a Virtual Cowl potentially practical. It also predicts that electric propulsion will become standard for spacecraft.

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Contents
SUMMARY ............................................................................................. iv
Chapter 1: CONCEPT OVERVIEW ............................................................ 1
Weakly Ionized Plasmas for Propulsion Applications ....................... 2
Electric Propulsion Systems ............................................................ 5
Chapter 2: AERONAUTICAL APPLICATIONS ......................................... 11
Basic Principles of Magnetohydrodynamics and Requirements for
MHD Performance ......................................................................... 11
Nonequilibrium MHD in Cold Air Flows ........................................... 13
The Ajax Concept: MHD Bypass ..................................................... 15
The Reverse Energy Bypass ........................................................... 18
MHD Applications to Reentry and Near-Orbital Flight .................... 20
Chapter 3: SPACE APPLICATIDNS ........................................................ 23
Chapter 4: SUMMARY AND PREDICTIONS ............................................ 25
Chapter 5: ENDNOTES ......................................................................... 26
Figures
Figure 1. Electrothermal Arcjet Thruster ................................................. 7
Figure 2. Electrostatic Gridded Ion Thrusters ......................................... 8
Figure 3. Field Orientation for Hall Field Systems and PS Hall
Thruster ............................................................................................8
Figure 4. Electromagnetic Accelerator Field Configuration and Self-
Field Electromagnetic Spacecraft Thrusters ....................................... 9
Figure 5. Air-Breathing MHD Engine ..................................................... 10
Figure 6. MHD Control of Scramjet Inlet Using E-Beam Ionization ........ 15
Figure 7. Schematic of Ajax Hypersonic Vehicle Concept ...................... 16
Figure 8. The Reverse Energy Bypass Concept ...................................... 19
Figure 9. Schematic of the Virtual Cowl Concept ................................... 20
Figure 10. Reentry Vehicle with Surface-Integrated MHD Device and
Plasma-Enabled Virtual Streamlining and L/D Increase ................... 21
Figure 11. Electrothermal Arcjet Thruster on Satellite .......................... 23
Figure 12. SP-100 Space Nuclear Power System ................................... 24
Figure 13. Nuclear Electric Propulsion (NEP) Concept Vehicles ............. 24
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