Plasma thruster uses magnetic fields to confine and direct the hot ion thrust NASA wants a space demonstration of a HTS coil Vapor cooled at 30-40 K Roughly 200,000 A-turns on 20-cm mandrel Total magnet mass ~ 20 kg 3-g launch load; standard NASA vibration spec VASIMR thrust ~0.2 N         HTS coil which was built by Dupont, for testing in the plasma thruster facility at the Advanced Space Propulsion Laboratory at NASA-Johnson Space Center.

Conceptual design of a plasma thruster proposed for the NASA Radiation Technology Demonstration satellite

ORNL  Fusion Home Page   Fusion Technology  Magnetics and Superconductivity Group