A magnetohydrodynamic drive could lead to fuel stations on Mars

Throughout the subsequent 15 years, NASA, China, and SpaceX plan to ship the primary crewed missions to Mars. In all three circumstances, these missions are supposed to culminate within the creation of floor habitats that may enable for a lot of returns and—fairly probably—everlasting human settlements. This presents quite a few challenges, one of many best of which is the necessity for loads of breathable air and propellant. Each will be manufactured by electrolysis, the place electromagnetic fields are utilized to water (H₂O) to create oxygen gasoline (O₂) and liquid hydrogen (LH₂).

Whereas Mars has ample deposits of water ice on its floor that make this possible, present technological options fall in need of the reliability and effectivity ranges required for space exploration. Happily, a crew of researchers from Georgia Tech has proposed a “Magnetohydrodynamic Drive for Hydrogen and Oxygen Manufacturing in Mars Switch” that mixes a number of functionalities right into a system with no transferring elements. This technique may revolutionize spacecraft propulsion and was chosen by NASA’s Revolutionary Superior Ideas (NIAC) program for Part I improvement.

The proposal comes from Alvaro Romero-Calvo, an assistant professor on the Georgia Institute of Know-how, and his colleagues from the Georgia Tech Analysis Company (GTRC). The system employs a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) electrolytic cell, which depends on electromagnetic fields to speed up electrically conductive fluid (on this case, water) with none transferring elements. This enables the system to extract and separate oxygen and hydrogen gasoline in microgravity, eradicating the necessity for pressured water recirculation and the related tools (i.e., pumps or centrifuges).

As a specialist in low-gravity science, fluid mechanics, and magnetohydrodynamics, Romero-Calvo and his crew have spent a few years investigating the purposes of MHD methods for spaceflight. The necessity for a devoted research to evaluate the idea’s feasibility and integration into an appropriate oxygen manufacturing structure in the end motivated their proposal. In a earlier research, Romero-Calvo and co-author Dr. Katharina Brinkert (a professor of Chemistry on the College of Warwick) famous how water harvested in situ would scale back automobile launch plenty.

Nonetheless, additionally they famous that working this type of equipment in microgravity offered many unknowns, most of which aren’t addressed by present analysis. Specifically, they confused how the absence of buoyancy in microgravity ends in main technical challenges, like the necessity to detach and acquire oxygen and hydrogen bubbles, which was historically addressed utilizing pressured water recirculation loops. Nonetheless, they argued, this results in liquid administration units composed of a number of components and transferring elements, that are advanced, inefficient, and unreliable in space. As Romero-Calvo defined in a current Georgia Tech information launch:

“The concept of utilizing MHD forces for liquid pumping is explored within the 1990 thriller The Hunt for Purple October, the place a stealth soviet submarine powered by an MHD drive defects to the US. Though it is enjoyable to see Sean Connery taking part in the position of a Soviet submarine commander, the reality is that submarine MHD propulsion may be very inefficient. Our idea, quite the opposite, works within the microgravity atmosphere, the place the weak MHD power turns into dominant and may result in mission-enabling capabilities.”

As a substitute of conventional recirculation loops, the proposed MHD system depends on two distinct mechanisms to separate oxygen and hydrogen from water. The primary comes from diamagnetic forces, which come up within the presence of sturdy magnetic fields and lead to a magnetic buoyancy impact. Second, there are Lorentz forces, that are a consequence of the imposition of a magnetic discipline on the present generated between two electrodes. As Romero-Calvo famous of their proposal paper:

“Each approaches can doubtlessly result in a brand new era of electrolytic cells with minimal or no transferring elements, therefore enabling human deep space operations with minimal mass and energy penalties. Preliminary estimations point out that the combination of functionalities results in as much as 50% mass price range reductions with respect to the Oxygen Technology Meeting structure for a 99% reliability stage. These values apply to an ordinary four-crew Mars switch with 3.36 kg oxygen consumption per day.”

If profitable, this HMD system would allow the recycling of water and oxygen gasoline in long-term space journey. Romero-Calvo and different colleagues on the Daniel Guggenheim College of Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Tech demonstrated in one other paper that this know-how may even have purposes for water-based SmallSat propulsion and different mission profiles the place ISRU is a should. At current, Romero-Calvo and his colleagues have formulated the idea and have developed analytical and numeral fashions.

The subsequent step will contain the crew and their companions at Giner Labs (a Massachusetts-based electrochemical R&D agency) conducting feasibility research. Over the subsequent 9 months, they are going to obtain $175,000 to discover the system’s total viability and know-how readiness stage. These will consist primarily of computational research however will embody prototypes testing key applied sciences right here on Earth. As a Part I proposal, they may also be eligible to compete for Part II funding price $600,000 for a two-year research.

An early demonstrator of this know-how was examined aboard the twenty fourth flight of the New Sheperd (NS-24), an uncrewed mission that launched on December nineteenth, 2023. With assist from Blue Origin and the American Society for Gravitation and House Analysis (ASGSR), Romero-Calvo’s crew examined how magnets electrolyzer water in microgravity situations. The info from this flight and the forthcoming checks will inform an HMD electrolyzer prototype and will result in a system built-in aboard future space missions. Mentioned Romero-Calvo:

“We have been finding out the elemental magnetohydrodynamic move regimes that come up once we apply a magnetic discipline to water electrolyzers in spaceflight situations,” Romero-Calvo defined. “The Blue Origin experiment, together with our present collaboration with Prof. Katharina Brinkert’s group on the College of Warwick, will assist us predict the motion of oxygen bubbles in microgravity and it hints at how we will construct a future water electrolyzer for people.”