[ExI] Disturbing the Ionosphere

[Keith Henson]

There are so many loose ends to tie up before a power satellite
project can be proposed.  I wrote this about a year ago trying to find
someone who knows about the ionosphere.  I never got an answer.  Do
any of the people on these list know an ionosphere expert who might at
least express an opinion?

Keith


> Another possible problem has come up, though in truth I don't know if
> it really a problem or not.
>
> To keep the cost for the LEO to GEO leg down, we propose to use
> arcjets with an exhaust velocity of 20-25 km/s.  Here is a recently
> constructed 50 MW arcjet.
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Enthalpy_Arc_Heated_Facility
>
> They would be powered by orbiting power plants, using space to space
> microwave transmission, smaller versions of power satellites,
> operating at ~25 GHz to keep the antenna sizes down.
>
> The exhaust velocity is well above Earth escape velocity, _but_ the exhaust is
> ionized to an unknown degree and deep inside the Earth's magnetic
> field--which contains much higher energy particles in the Van Allen
> belts.  If the peak construction rate is 2 TW/year, that takes about a
> million of the 15 ton Skylon payloads.  Of that, about 2 million tons
> is reaction mass (probably hydrogen) for the arcjets, so it is a
> serious mass flow into the magnetosphere, from LEO all the way out to
> GEO.
>
> I have been looking for someone over the past few months who can set
> up a model and see if we have a problem or not.  The electric
> propulsion people, such as those at Ad Astra Rocket Company, tell me
> it is an interesting question that has not been considered as far as
> they know.  At the moment there is no funding available, but I am sure
> there is a paper in it.
>
> If you want to consider working on this (or assigning a graduate
> student) I would be delighted.
>
> If you use Skype, I am hkhenson there, or my phone is 626 264 7560
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Keith Henson
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L5_Society