Pulsed e-field propulsion system
OwnerJames W. Purvisinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention discloses an electric field propulsion system for spacecraft. The system includes a capacitor stack comprising an array of supercapacitors. Solid-state electronic circuits generate modulated currents and electric fields in pulse coils. The pulse coils direct the electric fields onto separated electric charges stored in the capacitor stack. The resulting unidirectional Lorentz Forces thereby generate thrust without reaction mass. Reaction momentum is carried away by Poynting Vector fields in conformity with the currently understood principles of electrodynamics. The design is scalable down to micro-chip sized thrusters.
Claims19
An E-field propulsion system comprising:
- at least one capacitor stack comprising one or more capacitance elements having surface geometries of either flat parallel planes, right circular cylindrical sections, or spiroidal ribbons, said one or more capacitance elements arranged with a common axis of symmetry for storing electric charge;
- at least one pulse coil comprising current conductors for directing modulated electric fields onto the at least one capacitor stack;
- electromagnetic field shielding for both attenuating the modulated electric fields and modulating the electrical inductance of the at least one pulse coil;
- at least one energy supply for supplying electric current to the at least one pulse coil, and for supplying electric charge to the at least one capacitor stack, said at least one energy supply comprised of any combination selected from the group consisting of:
- storage batteries, fuel cells, solar panels, fuel-oxidizer electric generators, radioisotopic thermal generators, and nuclear electric generator systems;
- at least one pulse control circuit for the purpose of timing and modulating the electric current in at least one pulse coil;
- at least one charge control circuit for establishing and maintaining quantities of electric charge on the one or more capacitance elements in the at least one capacitor stack;
- wherein a net unidirectional Lorentz Force results from modulated electric fields generated by the at least one pulse coil acting on electric charges stored in the at least one capacitor stack, and further wherein electromagnetic reaction momentum is carried away by Poynting Vector fields thereby producing thrust by the E-field propulsion system without expelling propellant.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.