Air-Breathing Magneto-Deflagration Propulsion for Sustained Very Low Earth Orbit

Satellites that operate at lower orbits have the potential to dramatically reduce the requirements, cost, and timelines that are involved in conventional launch processes. However, satellites at lower altitudes experience higher drag, must generate higher average thrust, and use more propellant to sustain orbit. These conditions lead to prohibitive requirements on the amount of propellant they must store and make long mission designs impractical. This talk describes a pulsed hydromagnetic plasma gun that operates in an air-breathing mode where propellant is harvested in orbit. We show how a deflagration mode enables the generation of T/P > 2 mN/kW with mass flow rates of air that can be harvested in very low Earth orbit (VLEO, ~250-350 km). We show this performance is sufficient to maintain altitude in VLEO and identify challenges other thrust architectures face in achieving this milestone.