Application for deployed high temperature superconducting coils in spacecraft Engineering: a review and analysis

Superconductors have been proposed for many space applications. The development of high temperature superconducting materials makes feasible the use of field-generating coils deployed beyond the hull of interplanetary spacecraft and capable of producing very high magnetic moments. These very large volume magnetic fields have a number of potential applications, including magnetic shielding, magnetic propulsion and magnetic sails. Magnetic fields for shielding purposes, produced by on-board field coils, were proposed in the l960s, but their extremely high energy requirement prevented their implementation.The use of deployed coils of very large radius is shown to allow an enormous reduction in the energy needed to generate high magnetic moment fields compared with that needed in the case of on-board coils and could make magnetic shielding, magnetic propulsion and magnetic sail applications practical in spacecraft engineering.

Duke Scholars

Author Seth Alain Watkins Engineering Graduate and Professional Programs