'Acceleration without fuel' - revolutionary thruster aces first tests on orbit

News broke on Space.com this afternoon about successful tests of the first of its kind thruster that uses superconducting magnets to move a satellite in space. 

Zenno Astronautics, a spin-off from the University of Auckland, has flown its new "Supertorquer" system on the Mira satellite built by California-based start-up Impulse Space. The tests began shortly after Mira's launch in November last year aboard the SpaceX Transporter 12 mission and saw the shoebox-size device perform with flying colors, Zenno Astronautics CEO and founder Max Arshavsky, told Space.com.

Superconducting magnetics can convert solar energy input directly into momentum in space, by interacting with the Earth's magnetic field, so the solar energy input takes the place of liquid fuels carried for onboard thrusters. The problem with this approach has been that the hardware to do it was too big, complex, and heavy to fit on a satellite. 

"It's a technology that allows a spacecraft to not tumble violently in space and point in the right direction," Arshavsky said. "The unit has multiple super-conducting magnets that are positioned in different axes. When we power up the magnets, they generate a magnetic field, which interacts with Earth's magnetic field, and because we can control the magnetic field on the satellite, we can control the way in which it turns with respect to Earth."

Shoebox size? Like this? I'll guess that's about a foot along the horizontal axis and around 4" on the vertical. It wouldn't work on some really small satellites, but maybe that's not the target mission. For now.

Zenno Astronautics' Supertorquer attitude control system uses superconducting magnets powered by solar energy to generate thrust aboard satellites. The system was recently tested in orbit. (Image credit: Zenno Astronautics)

If you're familiar with any of the demonstrations of superconductivity like I've seen, you might be thinking, "doesn't that require super cold liquid to soak the wires in?" The wires have to be super, single digit-Kelvin temperatures, but liquids aren't required. Nor does it depend on the environment where it's operating (the satellite) be that cold. 

The unit housing the superconducting magnets is wrapped in layers of insulation and fitted with a heat pump that removes all the excess heat from the system. Every time the satellite needs a push, the superconducting coils power up, drawing energy from a battery charged by the satellite's solar panels. 

Superconducting magnetics are a potentially huge field, Arshavsky talks about using magnetics to make Earth to Mars missions more reasonable. The details there aren't clear to me, but I've never studied things like the solar magnetic field, that I know we live in and are affected by but without important details. CEO Arshavsky has been looking at other applications. 

"Once you have super-conducting technology available in space, you can then create very strong magnetic fields and you can use them for various use cases," he said. "You can accelerate things in space very fast or change the trajectory of a satellite completely without fuel."
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Powerful superconducting magnets could also provide a solution to the problem of cancer-causing cosmic radiation that explorers will encounter during stays on the moon or trips deeper into space.

"When we go to space, we get hurt by radiation, and these superconducting magnets can create umbrellas of magnetic fields around the spacecraft to protect the interior," said Arshavsky. "So we can shield people in space from that radiation."

Zenno Astronautics company plans to fly a larger demonstrator on an undisclosed mission later this year.

Yeah, he's a CEO, so I automatically figure that some percentage is too wishful and it's not all easy or maybe not even doable at all, but it's some pretty interesting stuff.