This article will discuss the fourth state of matter – plasma. However, please note that before repeating this invention, please read the warning below carefully.
Disclaimer: If you intend to replicate this invention, please be aware of the following risks: The device uses dangerous high voltage current to operate. In addition, the final product may emit small amounts of X-rays. I will not be responsible for damage to property or persons while repeating this training material.
Desktop
Plasma cutting of metal is used for processing sheet metal of fairly large sizes. The table should be large and height adjustable. For a homemade air plasma cutting machine, dimensions of 1300x1300 mm or slightly larger are sufficient. As a rule, larger sheets are not used in non-core workshops. But when building a machine with your own hands, the drawings can be changed to suit specific needs.
The platform is welded from a profile pipe (square) 80x80x4 mm or 10x10x4 mm. You can also use a rectangular profile, but a square is cheaper and easier to weld. The shape of the base is a regular table with four legs. Each leg must be equipped with a screw height adjustment system for precise leveling.
Working surface of the table - straight parallel slats
The guides are made from pipe with a diameter of 1 or 1.5 inches. They are equipped with rollers on bearings, which can be easily machined yourself from mild steel. A CNC plasma metal cutting machine will be highly productive only if feeding and moving workpieces does not cause difficulties.
Plasma engine operation diagram
| Main types of plasma engines for spacecraft | Operating principles |
| Electrostatic | A “classical” ion engine operating on the basis of the “Hall effect”, in which the closed drift of electrons under the influence of a ring electrostatic field ensures the reactive outflow of plasma. According to the principle diagram, Hall engines are divided into engines with an anode layer (LAS) and with an extended acceleration zone (SAP) |
| Electrothermal | Electromagnetic fields are used to generate plasma, which leads to an increase in fuel temperature. Next, the thermal energy transferred to the gaseous fuel is converted into kinetic energy |
| Electromagnetic | A plasma engine in which ions are accelerated due to the influence of electromagnetic fields - natural (terrestrial) and artificial (generated by the device itself) |
The most commonly used devices at present are devices that somehow operate on the Hall effect.
Ion engine diagram
Today, ion engines are necessary for satellites to maneuver in near space—usually to maintain a stationary orbit, change their course, or avoid space debris. But there are also several projects related to the use of ion engines for long-distance space travel.
The most famous of these was NASA's Dawn robotic exploration mission. It was launched in September 2007 to study the asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres. Dawn was equipped with three compact NSTAR xenon ion engines, which accelerated atoms to speeds ten times higher than modern chemical engines could do.
To fly, Dawn required an average of 3.25 mg of fuel per second, and 425 kg of xenon was placed on board the device. Nine years after launch, the Dawn station reached a speed of 39,900 km/h (11.1 km/s). On November 1, 2022, NASA officially ended the Dawn mission as the ion engines ran out of fuel.
Another spacecraft that uses xenon ion engines for long-distance flights is the Japanese research station for studying the Ryugu asteroid Hayabusa-2. The probe is equipped with four IES ion engines and xenon engines weighing 73 kg.
When and how did the idea of developing a plasma engine come about?
The possibilities of using electric rocket engines were thought about at the beginning of the 20th century. The idea of creating a plasma engine in which jet thrust could arise due to the energy of ions was first publicly put forward in parallel in 1911 by the Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, one of the theoretical founders of astronautics. The first practical experiments in this direction were carried out in 1916 by the American “father of astronautics” - scientist Robert Goddard.
At that time, such developments could not become the basis of any full-fledged technical solutions: they could only operate in conditions as close as possible to a vacuum. Issues of using plasma technologies became relevant by the 1960s, when the USSR and the USA began the practical exploration of outer space. By that time, scientists from these countries had substantiated the principles of operation of various ion engines capable of creating jet thrust due to ionized gas accelerated to high speeds in an electric field.
The first working ion engine was built by NASA engineer Harold Kaufman in 1959. He used mercury as fuel. Suborbital testing of this engine took place in 1964, when a research rocket launched the scientific probe Sert 1 - the first device in history to use the ion engine design in space. In the 1970s, a number of repeated tests of this technology were carried out in the United States, but they did not develop it further.
SPD of Kaliningrad OKB Fakel
In the USSR, they approached it more thoroughly. The theoretical study of plasma dynamics, carried out by academician Alexei Morozov, is considered the most fundamental in world science. In 1972, the attitude control system of the Soviet Meteor satellite used two electric rocket engines: “classical” ion and stationary plasma (SPD). The latter option proved to be better, and Soviet specialists concentrated on this type of engine. The Kaliningrad Design Bureau “Fakel” began to specialize in their production, which later began to develop and improve this technology.
Currently, it is Kaliningrad SPDs that lead the world in terms of achieved power and productivity characteristics. They are widely in demand by many foreign manufacturers of commercial geostationary satellites and are used to maintain their orbits. Russian SPDs made it possible to create satellites without using chemical propulsion, which is based on very toxic fuel.
