Project "Michael"

[Dartes]

-----: File Open: Project "Michael" :-----
-----: Documenting Official: Martin Lawrence :-----
-----: Data Decryption Complete. Authorized Viewing Parties Loaded: Invite Only :-----

Combat Necessity

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The vessel's construction seems to be slowing down, as I'm running more tests to ensure that the ship's newly installed systems are working perfectly.
The structural part of the vessel has been completed, as the new hull panels have been completely built from scratch so it took more time than expected to do so.
The vessel's weaponry system has been a lot more difficult to build than predicted, as the prototype weapons are very complex to build as they are very different from the normal Pulse type weaponry that can be found on the civilian market, yet we managed to build it piece by piece even if it took more time to build.
The new scanning system has been the most easy part to be mounted on, as it didn't require an overall rebuild of the whole scanning system, but just some small improvements to the already existing one to be paired up with the Ingenuus Powercell's power.
Only piece to be built is the Propulsion system We already build a scheme for it and yet we are to actually build it as this type of engine has never been built using Azurite gas as fuel.

Engine Scheme

The engine we are talking about, as I mentioned earlier is an Ion based propulsion system, a Hall-effect propulsion system.

Hall-effect propulsion system explanation

The essential working principle of the "Hall thruster" is that it uses an electrostatic potential to accelerate ions up to high speeds. In a "Hall thruster", the attractive negative charge is provided by an electron plasma at the open end of the propulsion system instead of a grid. A radial magnetic field of about 100–300 G (0.01–0.03 T) is used to confine the electrons, where the combination of the radial magnetic field and axial electric field cause the electrons to drift in azimuth thus forming the Hall current from which the device gets its name.

Hall current

The Hall effect is due to the nature of the current in a conductor. Current consists of the movement of many small charge carriers, typically electrons, holes, ions or all three. When a magnetic field is present, these charges experience a force, called the Lorentz force. When such a magnetic field is absent, the charges follow approximately straight, 'line of sight' paths between collisions with impurities, phonons, etc. However, when a magnetic field with a perpendicular component is applied, their paths between collisions are curved, thus moving charges accumulate on one face of the material. This leaves equal and opposite charges exposed on the other face, where there is a scarcity of mobile charges. The result is an asymmetric distribution of charge density across the Hall element, arising from a force that is perpendicular to both the 'line of sight' path and the applied magnetic field. The separation of charge establishes an electric field that opposes the migration of further charge, so a steady electric potential is established for as long as the charge is flowing.

An electric potential between 150 and 800 volts is applied between the anode and cathode.

The central spike forms one pole of an electromagnet and is surrounded by an annular space, and around that is the other pole of the electromagnet, with a radial magnetic field in between.
bout 20–30% of the discharge current is an electron current, which does not produce thrust, thus limiting the energetic efficiency of the propulsion system; the other 70–80% of the current is in the ions. Because the majority of electrons are trapped in the Hall current, they have a long residence time inside the propulsion system and are able to ionize almost all of the propellant, allowing mass use of 90–99%. The mass use efficiency of the propulsion system is thus around 90%, while the discharge current efficiency is around 70%, for a combined propulsion system efficiency of around 63%.

However, "Hall thrusters" operate at the high specific impulses that is typical for electric propulsion. One particular advantage, as compared to a gridded ion propulsion system, is that the generation and acceleration of the ions takes place in a quasi-neutral plasma;This allows much smaller propulsion systems compared to gridded ion propulsion systems.

Therefore might take a bit to actually build and mount it as we want to have it perfectly built.

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