PPPL plasmoid thruster / magnetic reconnection thruster

[sebk]

I'd add one reality check with all of this.

Classic electric thrusters have about electric power vs thrust at about 20kW/N (or 50mN/kW). This things is few times worse than that.

NB. considering Hohmann transfers to outer reaches (Uranus+) of Solar system is not very useful. Hohmann transfer to outer Solar System take about 1/4th of orbital period of the body. 62 years to Pluto is not very useful.

The interesting and usable part of the research would be <2000s ISP but appropriately low electric power propulsion. If you could get 11-12kW/N at 2000s ISP that would be really something (regular ion thrusters waste non trivial fraction of the energy on ionization, get rid of this and 11 to 12kW/N at 2000s is doable).

[aceshigh]

Interview with Dr Fatima Ebrahimi at Event Horizon channel