MICROWAVE PROPULSION FOR SPACECRAFT

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION
A spacecraft is a vehicle, or machine designed to fly in outer space. From the launch
of the worlds first artificial satellite Sputnik 1, humans have grown a lot. The launch
ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments; while the
Sputnik launch was a single event, it marked the start of the Space Age. As of 2016, only
three nations have flown manned spacecraft: USSR/Russia, USA, and China. The first
manned spacecraft was Vostok 1, which carried Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into space
in 1961, and completed a full Earth orbit. There were five other manned missions which
used a Vostok spacecraft. The second manned spacecraft was named Freedom 7, and it
performed a sub-orbital spaceflight in 1961 carrying American astronaut Alan Shepard to
an altitude of just over 187 kilometres. There were five other manned missions
using Mercury spacecraft.

The growth of human space flight has led to us venturing into further aspects of
development. Deep space exploration has become the talk among all the countries lately.
Funding a deep scape exploration is a costly affair. The fact that all the current
technologically advanced spacecraft arent fast matters a lot. The fastest vehicle designed
by man is NASAs robotic Juno spacecraft that accelerated at 265,000 km/h. This speed
was achieved when the craft reached Jupiter on July 4, 2016. According to NASA, a vessel
with humans on it would take roughly six months to travel to Mars and another six
months to travel back from Mars. In addition, astronauts would have to stay 18-20 months
on Mars before the planets re-align for a return trip. In all, the mission would take roughly
2 1/2 years. This is a long time for a nearby planet. We need new type of propulsion
systems. There were a lot proposed throughout history like the Warp Drive. But none came
close to proper experimentation. The one that actually made into this phase is the
controversial emdrive.

A radio frequency (RF) resonant cavity thruster, also known as an EmDrive, is a

controversial proposed type of electromagnetic thruster where an anisotropic
electromagnetic field inside the microwave cavity purportedly produces thrust. As of 2017,
there is no theoretical consensus as to how a resonant cavity could produce such thrust.
Despite this, inventors have tried to develop such a drive because of the possibility of

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supporting long voyages in space, where propellant is a limiting factor.

Conventional thrusters expel propellant, such as when ships move masses of water, aircraft
move masses of air, or rockets expel exhaust. A drive which did not expel propellant in
order to produce a reaction force, providing thrust while being a closed system with no
external interaction, would be a reactionless drive. Such a drive would violate
the conservation of momentum and Newton's third law, leading many physicists to believe
it to be impossible, labelling the idea pseudoscience. On the other hand, a drive that
interacted with and changed an external field could be part of an open system, propellant
less but not reactionless, like a sail catching and redirecting existing winds to move a ship.

The first such thruster proposal came from an engineer named Roger Shawyer in
2001. He invented a design with a conical cavity, calling it the EmDrive. Guido Fetta later
invented the Cannae Drive, with a pillbox-shaped cavity. This drive was subjected to large
number of controversies because of its failure to adhere the law of conservation of
momentum.

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Chapter 2

PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION

At first sight the idea of propulsion without propellant seems impossible. However
the technology is firmly anchored in the basic laws of physics and following an extensive
review process, no transgressions of these laws have been identified.

The principle of operation is based on the well-known phenomenon of radiation pressure.

This relies on Newtons Second Law where force is defined as the rate of change of
momentum. Thus an electromagnetic (EM) wave, travelling at the speed of light has a
certain momentum which it will transfer to a reflector, resulting in a tiny force.

If the same EM wave is travelling at a fraction of the speed of light, the rate of change of
momentum, and hence force, is reduced by that fraction. The propagation velocity of an
EM wave, and the resulting force it exerts, can be varied depending on the geometry of a
waveguide within which it travels.

Thus if the EM wave travelling in a tapered waveguide is bounced between two reflectors,
with a large velocity difference at the reflector surfaces, the force difference will give a
resultant thrust to the waveguide linking the two reflectors. If the reflectors are separated
by a multiple of half the effective wavelength of the EM wave, this thrust will be multiplied
by the Q of the resulting resonant cavity, as illustrated in figure 1.

Figure 1

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The inevitable objection raised, is that the apparently closed system produced by this
arrangement cannot result in an output force, but will merely produce strain within the
waveguide walls. However, this ignores Einsteins Special Law of Relativity in which
separate frames of reference have to be applied at velocities approaching the speed of light.
Thus the system of EM wave and waveguide can be regarded as an open system, with the
EM wave and the waveguide having separate frames of reference.

A similar approach is necessary to explain the principle of the laser gyroscope, where open
system attitude information is obtained from an apparently closed system device.

2.1 Thrust Equation

In an EmDrive engine, microwave energy is converted to mechanical force according to

the thrut equation, derived from the basic radiation pressure equation

20
F=

1
0 0 0 20
F= Qu ( ) (1 )
1 2 1 2

Where F is the force, P0 is the incident power, c the speed of light, Qu is the unloaded Q
factor of the cavity, 0 is the wavelength of the microwaves in free space, and 1 and 02
are the wavelengths at the end of the largest and smallest cross-section, respectively.

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Chapter 3

THEORY OF INERTIA
Repeated testing, with multiple versions of the EM Drive built by multiple independent
sources, have all failed to prove that it is not generating the thrust reported by prior tests.
Against all odds, the EM Drives abilities are seem to be holding up to scrutiny, and thus
seemingly in contravention of the law that every action must have an equal and opposite
reaction. EM Drive inventor Roger Shawyer thought he could get around this by invoking
a process called vacuum polarization, arguing that the system takes transient particles that
appear spontaneously in space, turns them into a plasma, and expels them out the back. If
true, this would mean that the EM Drive really doesnt break the laws of physics but,
unfortunately, it doesnt seem to be the explanation.

Mike McCulloch at Plymouth University in the U.K. gave the idea of the Theory of
This theory could equally fix the EM Drives problem with Newtons Third Law by
positing a whole new theory of inertia. Relativity predicts something called the Unruh
effect, in which any accelerating body should observe an amount of extra heat relative to
its acceleration. Put differently, the faster you accelerate, the hotter the universe should
look; wave a thermometer in absolute zero, and in principle its movement should cause it
to observe a temperature very, very, very slightly above absolute zero, especially if you can
wave it at relativistic speeds.

The new studys argument relies on a further idea called Unruh radiation, which refers to
the unconfirmed idea that the observation of this heated universe will stimulate the release
of real particles in other words, particles from the pure vacuum of space, not unlike our
vacuum polarization particles. In the vast majority of cases, this theory predicts the results
were used to seeing in the world around us, same as the classical theory of inertia. But its
predictions diverge from tradition in one area: extremely small accelerations, or, about the
level of acceleration (perhaps) observed in the EM Drive.

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The idea is that, since the wavelength of Unruh radiation would increase as acceleration
decreases, for extremely small accelerations a body should be experiencing Unruh radiation
with a wavelength longer than the observable universe. With this being the case, inertia
may only take on whole-wavelength units over time. Behaving in this way is to become
quantized, to exist only in some multiple of an indivisible unit of measure (a quanta).
So, at very low accelerations, inertia jumps from tiny magnitude to slightly less tiny
magnitude without going through all the intervening values we would expect.

Evidence for this theory may predate the EM Drive. Scientists have long observed a
phenomenon called the Flyby Anomaly, in which spacecraft performing a flyby of Earth
will move noticeably and reliably faster than we calculate they ought to. The studys author
claims that this new theory of inertia could explain this effect, and produce more accurate
inertial predictions that better reflect our observations.

In the context of the EM Drive, this new inertial effect would cause thrust inside the EM
Drives truncated cone section. Different wavelengths of Unruh radiation will be allowed
at either end of the cone, due to the change in diameter. This means that as particles bounce
back and forth inside the cone, their inertia would have to change as well. According to the
law of conservation of momentum, this means the particles will have to generate thrust that
is, thrust without the need to bring fuel.

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Chapter 4

DEVELOPMENT

4.1 Development of Demonstrator Engine

Although the experimental thruster had verified the static thrust equation, it became
apparent that the concept would not become generally accepted until a viable engine could
be demonstrated. Accordingly, a proposal for the design, manufacture and test of a
complete demonstrator engine was submitted to DTI. A Research and Development grant
was awarded in September 2003 and the work started with a mission analysis phase.

This work enabled the specification of the demonstrator engine to be optimised against the
requirements of a typical commsat mission. Unlike the experimental thruster, the engine
would be rated for continuous operation and extensive design work was required to increase
the specific thrust by raising the design factor and unloaded Q.

The engine was built with a design factor of 0.844 and has a measured Q of 45,000 for an
overall diameter of 280 mm. The microwave source is a water cooled magnetron with a
variable output power up to a maximum of 1.2 kW.

To obtain the predicted thrust the engine must maintain stable resonance at this high Q
value. Major design challenges have included thermal compensation, tuning control and
source matching. The engine was tested in a large static test rig employing a calibrated
composite balance to measure thrust in 3 directions, up, down and horizontal. A total of
134 test runs were carried out over the full performance envelope, with a maximum specific
thrust of 214mN/kW being measured.

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4.2 Flight Programme

The first phase of a Flight Thruster development programme has been completed. A
3.85GHz thruster weighing 2.92 Kg, shown below, has been designed, manufactured and
tested.

The thruster was tested on a fully calibrated, composite balance test rig, with the thruster
mounted to give the thrust vector in up and down directions. Tests were carried out over an
input power range of 150W to 450W.

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The results for 19 test runs of up to 90 secs duration are shown below. Mean specific thrust
= 326mN/kW

The thruster is designed to be powered from existing flight qualified TWTAs, which are
driven from a dual redundant frequency generator unit (FGU) The FGU includes a
frequency control loop using feedback signals from the thruster, as shown below in the
functional block diagram.

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Flight Engine Block Diagram

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Chapter 5

APPLICATION OF FIRST GENERATION ENGINES

5.1 Communication Satellites

For a typical 3 tonne geostationary communications satellite, with a 6kW solar power
capacity, replacing the conventional apogee engine, attitude thrusters and propellant with a
microwave propulsion system would result in a reduction of the launch mass to 1.3 tonnes.
The satellite would be launched to Low Earth Orbit (LEO), where solar arrays and antennas
would be deployed. The microwave propulsion system would then propel the satellite in a
spiral trajectory up to Geostationary Equatorial Orbit (GEO) in 36 days.

Station keeping and attitude control would also utilise the microwave propulsion system.
The operational lifetime of the satellite would no longer be restricted by propellant reserves
and therefore could be significantly extended.

The feasibility study concluded that for the planned GEO launches over the next 10 years,
the total cost saving would be 15 billion. (Approx. 12 lakh Crore).

5.2 Science Missions

The true value of an electric propulsion system without propellant becomes apparent when
long duration science missions are considered. The following table gives a comparison of
propulsion system performance originally specified for the recently completed European
Space Agency (ESA) Smart 1 mission.

Performance Parameter Current Ion Propulsion Proposed Microwave

System Propulsion System
DC Power (Watts) 700 700
Thrust (mN) 23 88
Thrust Period (Years) 1.6 15
System Mass (kg) 94 9

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The 15 year thrust period is based on the cathode life of the magnetron. This will be the
same technology as that used in space qualified (Travelling Wave Tube Amplifiers)
TWTAs, which are currently specified for 15 years continuous operation.

If the 700 W (dc) engine was used as primary propulsion for a 50 kg science probe, a
velocity increment of 5.6 km/sec would be achieved in the first year for a thrust of 88 mN.
Thereafter, due to the effects of equation, the thrust falls as the velocity increases, until
after 15 years, the thrust would be 16 mN at a terminal velocity approaching 30 km/sec.

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Chapter 6

SCOPE FOR FUTURE

Second Generation Engines

The potential for improvement in mission performance by using first generation microwave
engines can be seen to be very significant. However the introduction of superconducting
technology in second generation engines will present quite remarkable possibilities.

At present, superconducting microwave cavities are restricted to high energy physics

applications. An example is the European Tesla accelerator where 20,000 S Band niobium
cavities cooled with liquid helium will form the basis of the main accelerators.

A second generation engine using similar technology would however be subject

to equation,

2 2
( ) + =1

An average velocity of only 0.1 m/sec will reduce the specific thrust to 0.93 Tonne / kW.

6.1 Asteroid Deflection Missions

In the above equation, is the average velocity in the direction of the thrust vector. This
implies that an ideal application for a second generation engine would be asteroid
deflection, where a very small velocity change is required orthogonal to the velocity vector
of the asteroid itself. Thus a 1 kW engine, powered and cooled by a 24kW nuclear power
source would provide sufficient thrust to impart a 0.2 m/sec deflection velocity to an
asteroid weighing 1.5 billion tonnes, over a 1 year thrust period. If the thrust vector is
maintained orthogonal to the asteroid velocity, a deflection of 300,000 km would be
achieved over 10 years, for an asteroid of approximately 1 km diameter.

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6.2 Terrestrial Transport Applications

The ultimate spin-off from space technology will occur when second generation lift engines
are employed in terrestrial transport applications. Typically 3 tonnes of lift could be
obtained from 1kW of microwave power. Liquid hydrogen would be used for cooling the
lift engine and for powering the auxiliary engines. Thus the essential low cost, non polluting
components for large scale utilisation are readily achievable. A future low energy transport
infrastructure, no longer dependent on wings and wheels would now seem possible.

A comprehensive design study has shown that an early Demonstrator Vehicle could be
flying within 3 years of the start of a 2nd generation EmDrive development programme.
The Demonstrator vehicle comprises basically of a 700litre liquid hydrogen tank, supported
by 4 C-Band EmDrive lift engines with 2 microturbine jet engines for auxiliary propulsion.

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CONCLUSION

Microwave propulsion for spacecraft; A revolutionary proposal by Roger Shawyer if

proved right, could lead us to a much greater way to explore deep space. A reactionless
drive sounds really difficult to digest, but the experiments carried out at NASA has proved
otherwise.

If the drive really comes out to mass production, which is indeed a long time away, our
reach of space will be more. Also, deep space exploration will become a practical reality.
Instead of months to reach the nearest planet, it will take just days to reach. An idea that
sparked great innovation will change how humanity looks at space exploration.

The microwave propulsion will be better in every way possible. In terms of the amount of
payload that can be carried which was previously limited because of the need to carry fuel.
This technology is implemented on a large scale, could be the dawn of the second
generation space age.

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REFERENCES
[1] CULLEN, A.L. Absolute Power Measurements at Microwave Frequencies IEE
Proceedings Vol 99 Part 1V 1952 P.100

[2] Anomalous Thrust Production from an RF Test Device Measured on a Low-Thrust

Torsion Pendulum; David A. Brady*, Harold G. White*, Paul March* , James T. Lawrence* , and
Frank J. Davies** NASA Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas 77058

[3] Prediction and experimental measurement of the electromagnetic thrust generated by a

microwave thruster system; Yang Juan*, Wang Yu-Quan*, Ma Yan-Jie*, Li Peng-Fei*, Yang Le*,
Wang Yang*, and , and He Guo-Qiang*; *
College of Astronautics, Northwestern Polytechnical
University, Xian 710072, China

[4] Theory of Inertia, Mike McCulloch,Plymouth University; Article from Extreme Tech
published in 2016.

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