In my search for energy requirements i will start with this:
(The interaction of a flowing plasma with a dipole magnetic field: measurements and modelling of a diamagnetic cavity relevant to spacecraft protection)
http://www.minimagnetosphere.rl.ac.uk/d ... amford.pdf
From introduction:
The solar wind consists of a plasma characterised by low densities (0.1-2x106m-3), moderate temperatures (10 to 300eV) and fast/supersonic (300- 1000km/s) directed flows; the actual solar wind output is highly variable on time scales of milliseconds upwards due to the localised and turbulent origins of the energetic plasma from the surface of the Sun. The solar magnetic field is carried with the out flowing plasma and is of the order of 2-10nT at the distance of the Earth’s orbit. Of greatest concern from a manned spacecraft safety standpoint are the energetic (10-100 MeV) heavy solar wind particles of which ~90% are protons, 9% are alphas, with electrons making up the majority of the remaining mass.
From experimental apparatus:
The plasma in this system consists of a supersonic plasma beam (Mach number > 3) with peak densities and temperatures in the range 1017-1019 and 5-7eV respectively.
This plasma is slower, colder and less energetic, which probably means that power requirements would have to be adjusted, for a real thing.
More from the same section:
The solenoidal field coils, connected in series with a single return conductor to cancel the error field due to the connecting straps, have inside diameters of 28cm and are placed 14.5cm apart: the maximum field at the centre of the machine for the work reported here is approximately 0.07 Tesla. For these studies, this linear field represents the analogue of the interplanetary magnetic field.
But 0.07 Tesla is a little more than 2-10nT ? hm.... It's also easier to see, what's going on. Let's read some more.
This part is a bit too long to quote, so i will just note it:
3.2 Interaction with static dipole field
This is a link to cloaking technology:
3.3 Interaction with pulsed dipole field
This source, outlined in section 2, operates with current pulses of up to 3.5kA of approximately 5-10ms duration and with characteristic rise times of approximately 100μs. The field at the pole corresponding to these currents can approach 2 Tesla, approximately an order of magnitude greater than in the static field experiments.
This 3.5 kA and 2 Tesla are a bit scary, but let's see what happens ...
From the same section:
While much further work is necessary to analyse this configuration, it is striking that the apparent field required to form this cavity appears to be much greater than that needed to sustain it.
Some sort of capacitor to kick start the bubble and then a lot less to sustain it ? Sweet.
There is also 'much further work is necessary' in the same sentence, so i ll try to curb my enthusiasm for a moment.
More from the same section:
Whilst the origin of this effect is uncertain at present, it may have important practical implications for the power requirements for possible future spacecraft protection systems.
Do we need to know origin of the effect to exploit it ? Not necessarily, i think.
This looks like one part of equation on a road to find power requirements.
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