1039. Революция в космонавтике: плазменные двигатели для освоения Солнечной системы

Issue 1039. March 30, 2023. "A Revolution in Space: Plasma Engines for Solar System Exploration." How Russian scientists are creating powerful plasma engines for conquering the solar system, how electric plasma rocket engines differ from the chemical engines we are used to, how a plasma engine works, about the three stages of the engine, about magnetic confinement of plasma in the engine, how argon plasma is created, why solar panels cannot be used for megawatt-class engines, why a nuclear power plant is needed on board a nuclear planetary craft, how a plasma engine differs from the widely used ion engines or Hall thrusters, why the power density of a plasma engine makes it the only alternative at powers greater than 1 MW of electricity, why argon is now used for the plasma engine prototype, is it possible to use cometary water in a plasma engine, how high-frequency fields ionize atoms of the working gas, what is the temperature of argon in the first stage of the engine prototype, how the plasma from the first stage is accelerated and enters the second stage, how plasma with a temperature of 10 million degrees is held in the engine, what are the parameters of The plasma engine prototype being developed, why a plasma engine can use crushed material from any comet, why 2-4 tons of argon are needed for a round-trip flight to Mars, how the low cost and availability of argon allow plasma planes to fly to the edges of the Solar System, whether iodine can be used as an argon substitute, when a plasma engine prototype test rig will be created, when the first flight prototype will be built, the competition between the US and Russia in plasma engine development, and when the Russian plasma plane will ascend to orbit—watch and listen to the conversation from our special project "Kurchatov." Guests of the Russian Radio University are Alexander Viktorovich Spitsyn, Head of the Applied Plasma Technologies Department, and Evgeny Yuryevich Bragin, Researcher at the Advanced Technologies Laboratory of the Kurchatov Complex of Nuclear Transport Energy Technologies (National Research Center Kurchatov Institute). The episode premiered on March 30, 2023.