A female physicist invents a new fusion rocket that could bring the first humans to Mars

Dr. Fatima Ebrahimi, who works for the US Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), has invented a new fusion missile that could one day take humans to Mars.

The device uses magnetic fields to shoot plasma particles from the rear of the rocket and propel the craft through space.

By using magnetic fields, scientists can adjust the amount of thrust for a particular mission and astronauts can change the amount of thrust as they fly to distant worlds.

Ebrahimi’s innovation would also bring space suit heroes to the Red Planet ten times faster than today’s rocket propellers that use electric fields to propel the particles.

“I’ve been cooking this concept for a while,” said Ebrahimi.

‘I got the idea in 2017 while sitting on a deck thinking about the similarities between a car’s exhaust and the high-speed exhaust particles.’

“During its operation, this tokamak produces magnetic bubbles called plasmoids, which move at about 20 kilometers per second, which was a lot like thrust to me.”

Fusion is the force that drives the sun and stars, combining elements of light in the form of plasma.

Plasma is the hot, charged state of matter made up of free electrons and atomic nuclei that represent 99 percent of the visible universe – and is capable of generating enormous amounts of energy.

Scientists have been working around the clock to replicate fusion in a lab in hopes of using its power to produce electricity for rockets traveling through deep space.

Current plasma thrusters that use electric fields to propel the particles can only produce a low specific momentum or speed.

But computer simulations performed on PPPL computers and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, a DOE Office of Science User Facility at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, showed that the new plasma thruster concept can generate exhaust fumes at speeds of hundreds of miles per second, 10 times faster than that of other thrusters.

That faster speed at the start of a spacecraft’s journey could put the outer planets within reach of astronauts, Ebrahimi said.

“Long-distance travel takes months or years because the specific impulse from chemical rocket engines is very low, so it takes time for the craft to get up to speed,” she said.

“But if we make thrusters based on magnetic reconnection, we may be able to complete long-range missions in a shorter time.”

While using fusion to power missiles is not a new concept, the Ebrahimi thruster differs from leading edge devices in three ways.

The first is that changing the strength of the magnetic fields can increase or decrease the amount of thrust, allowing for better maneuvering through the dark abyss that is space.

“By using more electromagnets and more magnetic fields, you can actually turn a knob to fine-tune the speed,” Ebrahimi said.

Second, the new thruster produces motion by ejecting both plasma particles and magnetic bubbles known as plasmoids.

The plasmoids add power to the propulsion and no other thruster concept contains them.

The final difference between Ebrahimi’s concept and others, however, is that it uses her own magnetic fields to shoot particles of plasma from the rear of the rocket – devices that have proven themselves in space using electric fields.

Using magnetic fields can be a game changer as it allows scientists to adjust the amount of thrust for a particular mission.

“While other thrusters need heavy gas made from atoms like xenon, you can use any type of gas you want in this concept,” Ebrahimi said. Scientists may prefer light gas in some cases because the smaller atoms can move more quickly.