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Air Plasma Thruster
Moderators: AmyCowen, kgudger, bfinio, MadelineB, Moderators
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deleted-253937
- Posts: 4
- Joined: Sun Dec 07, 2014 10:39 am
- Occupation: Student: 8th grade
- Project Question: The generation of plasma from air, and then using that as the propellant in an ion thruster type machine that would work on the Earth's surface.
- Project Due Date: No due due date for completion
- Project Status: I am conducting my research
Air Plasma Thruster
I had an idea a while ago, it was to ionize air somehow and then to repel it with the help of an electric field, this was supposed to push the ions down and the whole machine the other way. I've changed my idea a bit since then (not too considerably). And recently I read about the xenon thruster NASA is making, and I just want to know if it sounds possible to do something similar to that but with air instead of xenon. No need to reply urgently, thank you.
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bradleyshanrock-solberg
- Former Expert
- Posts: 260
- Joined: Thu Aug 25, 2005 7:44 am
- Occupation: Software Engineer/QA Lead - Quality, Risk Assessment, Statistics, Problem Solving
- Project Question: BS Caltech Engineering & Applied Science (Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science)
Research in Traffic and Ceramic Composites
25 years doing IT, various roles, for multinational manufacturing company - Project Due Date: n/a
- Project Status: Not applicable
Re: Air Plasma Thruster
Briefly - not easily. Xenon is a noble gas, which isn't very much like air. I doubt you really have the chemistry yet to understand the difference, and mine is a bit rusty, so a real chemist may wish to respond, but ionization means literally "gain or lose electrons to change charge", and atomic structure is deeply important to both how easy it is to do, and how much of a charge you generate (which would be the source of motive force).