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US 2024/0309858 A1Published application
Systems and methods for propulsion of an object in a vacuum
AssigneeOrbital Arc Corporation
InventorJonathan Huffman
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A propulsion device for vehicles, such as a spacecraft operating within a vacuum configured to ionize a fuel gas. Specifically, a soft ionization system pulls electrons from passing gas molecules directly into conductors and introduces ionized gas molecules into a static accelerating field. The ionized gas is utilized at a point of creation such that a chamber, housing, or channel to contain the ionized gas is not required.
Claims12
A system for creating propulsion in a vacuum, the system comprising:
- an ionizer chip with open pore channels running through its thickness that can admit a fuel gas to pass through.
- positively biased high aspect ratio conductors with tips that generate a field enhancement effect, coaxially aligned within the pore channels;
- grounded or negatively biased gate electrode on one surface of the ionizer chip;
- ionization regions positioned between the tips and the gate electrodes, wherein the ions are created and used in the ionization regions.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.