Big Techday 23: Plasma Surfing within the Solar System and Beyond [EN] - Mathias N. Larrouturou

Plasma Surfing within the Solar System and Beyond

The extreme energy requirements associated with fast round trip missions within the solar system or interstellar flight makes extraction from energy sources in space desirable. Electromagnetic interaction with the ionized gas flow in space (such as the solar wind or interstellar medium) offers the potential for significantly larger interaction areas than the physical size of the system itself. Various concepts have been developed to harness the solar wind for propulsion, including the MagSail, e-sail, and plasma magnet. These concepts primarily function as drag devices, limiting their velocities to that of the solar wind speed (~700 km/s), generating a propulsive force predominantly in the direction of the wind. In the proposed method a propellantless propulsion system, termed plasma surfing, generates a lifting force perpendicular to the apparent direction of the wind. The lift-generating mechanism extracts power from the flow over the vehicle in the apparent wind direction, which is then used to accelerate the surrounding medium in the transverse direction, generating lift at the expense of drag. Inspired by the dynamic soaring maneuvers performed by seabirds and gliders, which exploit differences in wind speed to gain velocity, the proposed technique involves the plasma surfer traveling between regions of the heliosphere that have varying wind speeds. Through this process, the system gains energy without the need for propellant and with only moderate onboard power requirements. This technique enables rapid transit within the solar system and voyages into interstellar space.

About the speaker:
Mathias N. Larrouturou is mechanical engineer from McGill University specialized in aerospace propulsion. Currently enrolled in a master’s degree in mechanical engineering, he participated in a variety of space related research projects, ranging from food production for deep space missions, laser thermal propulsion, to plasma physics and advanced propulsion. Over the past four years, Mathias dedicated his efforts to the development of several propulsion technologies, with a particular focus on harnessing in-space energy sources and mass flows. His most recent work includes the development of plasma surfing applied to fast round trip within the solar system and the design of a parabolic electrostatic nozzle for a fission rocket.