CANBERRA—A group of Australian scientists has teamed up with an aerospace company to test their revolutionary engine that could one day power missions to Mars.
The plasma thruster will be the first piece of Australian hardware sent into space in more than seven years and the first engine of its kind to be tested on a satellite.
The thruster is the culmination of more than a decade's work by Christine Charles and her colleagues from the Australian National University's Space Plasma Power and Propulsion (SP3) Group in Canberra.
Plasma propulsion was first developed in the 60s by the former Soviet Union as a method to propel spacecraft to Mars.
There are many different types but all work by accelerating an ionized gas (plasma) away from the craft to generate thrust.
Plasma thrusters will only work in the vacuum of space and must first be launched into orbit using conventional rockets.
Dr Charles told AAP her Helicon Double Layer Thruster (HDLT) has a number of advantages over other types of plasma engines.
"The main difference is that this thruster doesn't have any immersed grids or electrodes, so there are no erosion problems," she said.
"So, in theory there is an extended lifetime, as long as you have enough propellant and power it shouldn't break down as it has no moving parts and nothing that can break or wear."
The HDLT works by injecting gas into a tube open at one end where it is then turned into a plasma using radio waves and accelerated out using a magnetic field.
The simple design is also very safe, making it ideal for deep space exploration such as manned missions to Mars.
Another advantage of the HDLT is that it can work with a variety of propellants, opening up the possibility for off-world refuelling.
"We have recently submitted a publication where we present evidence on how the thruster performs using carbon dioxide which is one of the main components of Mars and Venus' atmospheres so you could imagine refuelling as you go," Dr Charles said.
In 2008, Dr Charles was approached by Europe's EADS-Astrium, the world's largest aerospace and aeronautic company, and a three-way collaboration between the SP3 Group, EADS-Astrium and the University of Surrey was established in March this year to develop the prototype.
"It will be a scientific mission to test how much thrust is created and to see if you can actually control the positioning of a satellite using such an engine," Dr Charles said.
Once this is complete Dr Charles is confident that the engine can be scaled up to work with larger craft.
"We have shown that the phenomenon at the heart of the HDLT, which is the acceleration of the ions to form a beam, works for small or large diameter thrusters," she said.
"You can not only scale it in size but also in power, so the limitation will not be from the engine itself but from the power available to the space craft."
Dr Charles says that Australian scientists in the space technology field have "no choice" but to look overseas in order to take their ideas out of the lab and into the sky as Australia has no space program of its own.
"I think Australia is a great country, it's powerful, it's got a lot of resources and excellent research, or course it should have its own space program," she said.
Dr Charles says having its own space program would allow Australia to partner with other organisations like the European Space Agency (ESA), allowing more development to happen down under.
