Space agency to do more Aussie tests

The European Space Agency is to begin full-scale testing of Australian propulsion technology which could help make deep space exploration a reality.

The ESA has announced it is going ahead with advanced trials of the helicon double layer thruster (HDLT) developed by Australian National University scientists Christine Charles and Rod Boswell.

HDLT uses solar electricity from the sun to create a magnetic field through which hydrogen is passed, making a beam of plasma to power ships through space.

In the next steps, the ESA will construct a detailed computer simulation of the plasma in and around the thruster and use the laboratory results to verify its accuracy.

The in-space performance can then be fully assessed and larger, high power experimental thrusters can be investigated.

The principle of HDLT was recently verified by the Ecole Polytechnique research centre in Paris.

Dr Charles welcomed the next step in the development of the Australian technology.

"The HDLT is a beautiful piece of physics because it is so simple and has an almost infinite lifetime," she said.

"It doesn't need any moving parts, any electrodes and is purely based on naturally occurring physical phenomenon."

ANU's thruster had an edge on rival technologies, Dr Charles said, because it was simpler and had been proven to work with many propellants including hydrogen.

The physics behind HDLT is based on the aurorae, the so-called northern and southern lights that signal increased solar activity.

Electrified gas released by the sun hits the Earth's magnetic field, creating a boundary of two plasma layers.

Electrically charged particles pick up energy as they travel through the layers of different electrical properties, creating thrust as they leave the spacecraft.

Calculations suggest a helicon double layer thruster would take up little more room than the main electric thruster on the ESA's SMART-1 spacecraft which is currently surveying the Moon's surface.

But the ANU thruster could potentially deliver many times more thrust at higher powers while delivering similar fuel efficiency.