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Alien Technology On Earth
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Space Mining Technology
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| Horta* Plasma Rock Disintegration by Plasma Incursion |
*The Horta was the creature of the Star Trek episode “The Devil in the Dark” that lived in
rock and was able to tunnel through it at will.
rock and was able to tunnel through it at will.
An old method for fracturing rock was to build a fire near the rock to heat it, then apply
water. This would create high mechanical stresses across the sharp temperature gradient
between the cooled surface and heated rock below it. A thermal gradient that is above the
crystalline phase change temperature of quartz will produce a mechanical expansion greater
than could simple thermal expansion. The internal pressure generated by either effect could
cause material to flake off the surface, or to shatter the rock.
Microwaves were used for cutting and drilling into rock as shown in William C. Mauers
book Novel Drilling Techniques can be adapted for producing thermal inversions in rock. I
suggest that in the vacuum of space, microwaves can heat artificially generated plasmas to use
in rock disintegration and ore extraction.
Ordinary matter will become plasma when heated to a high enough temperature. A plasma
is a gaseous or vaporized material that contains atoms which have been ionized. Ionized atoms
have free electrons (similar to metallic conductors) which contribute to the unusual properties
of plasma state of matter. The plasma's electrical properties permit electromagnetic fields to
heat the plasma. Ionization can be as low as 1 atom per billion to completely ionized. In a single
element plasma, the plasma density and the relative temperature can be a good indicator for
the degree of ionization. At high pressures and temperatures the electrical conductivity, (by
weight), of a plasma is much greater than for room temperature metallic conductors.
Plasma conductivity is the one of the properties that allow plasmas to be manipulated by
magnetic and electrostatic fields while enclosed by rock. Plasma can absorb electromagnetic
waves and be heated. Like metallic conductors, a plasma can partially absorb and/or reflect
electromagnetic waves.
Most rocks, unless they are pure metals or similar conductors, will allow the passage of
electromagnetic waves to some depth within them. The electromagnetic waves used could be
relatively long wavelengths like radio waves, or much shorter wavelengths like microwaves.
The temperature of a plasma can be maintained at some depth beneath the rock surface by
absorbing energy from impinging electromagnetic waves.
Plasma Initiation
Any material object will become plasma if heated to a sufficient temperature. Heating the
rock surface with lasers, focused sunlight, or electric arcs can create a high temperature
plasma. The plasma created in the vacuum of space may persist for a longer period of time and
be more easily manipulated than at Earths atmosphere pressure.
The Basic Properties of Confined Plasmas
Most plasma applications to not confine plasmas with physical walls. In conventional
applications it is considered wasteful and potentially destructive to have the plasma contact the
container walls. In fusion research and industrial sputtering processes the plasmas interaction
with their containers is minimized by design.
The utility of plasmas for mining can be divided along two lines, mechanical and chemical.
Mechanical effects can include cutting through or fracturing the rock. The chemical effects are
dependent on the elemental species of the plasma and the kind of chemical exchanges that will
occur when a plasma is in contact with rocks with different chemistries.
Horta Plasma is dependent upon contact with the rock surface to be effective. The
technology requirements should be less complex in confining a plasma than for sputtering or
especially fusion applications. The energy requirements for creating and maintaining confined
plasmas though are quite high. A plasma can be viewed as being similar to the arc created in
terrestrial welding. The larger the volume of the arc, the larger the energy requirements. A
terrestrial arc for welding is under atmospheric pressure and may actually be too dense and hot
for our application.
Electrons and heavy ions lose energy when they impact the walls confining them. The
heavy ions also can contact the walls and be chemically bound or physically captured beneath
the confining surface. Energy and the constituent elements of the plasma are being continually
lost to the surrounding walls.
All confined plasmas require energy input to maintain their equilibrium condition. A
simplified equilibrium condition exists when a gas is energized into a plasma that is confined by
a material that it cannot chemically interact with, it's heavy ions cannot sputter the surface, and
the gas cannot be captured within the surface of the confining material. These conditions can be
met if the density and temperature of the gas are below some limit. This could also represent
the minimum energy requirements for a confined plasma. This can also be considered the pilot
light condition for a confined plasma.
Increasing the energy of the previous example and either the energy deposited on the
surface of the container will cause it to melt, or the kinetic energy of the gas's heavy ions will
sputter atoms from the surface of the container. Some of the sputtered atoms from the
container may become ionized and join the plasma.
Further increasing the energy will cause the plasma density to increase and the heat flow
to the container walls to increase. Sputtering and melting of the container will increase. At
some point the atoms of the plasma that are from the container material will exceed the
population of the starter gas. Increasing the input energy above this point will produce
mechanical and thermal stresses that will be destructive to the container wall.
Vacuum Dispersion Unconstrained
In the vacuum of space, the plasmas constituent atoms will disperse at high velocities into
space. The plasma will need to be contained by walls or fields. The magnetic mirror cusp of a
solenoid may be able to partially contain plasma on the surface of a rock. In the vacuum of
space the plasma might only be contained because it does not have a direct kinetic path or line
of sight path to the surface. After multiple impacts on surfaces, the plasma components may be
entirely captured before they could escape to the surface vacuum.
To maintain plasma pressure a rock surface could be sealed by fusing sand into the cracks
and fissures. Connected surface openings could be detected and located by their ionized
emissions. Within this sealed environment the plasma can undermine the rock, or begin
processing the material of the rock into more useful products. Enclosed within the rock, the
pressures and temperatures generated by the plasma could allow for efficient rock cutting or
processing.
Interaction Between Heated Plasma and Rock
The chemical interactions of plasmas can have some similarities to aqueous chemical
solutions. Some of properties that control plasma chemical reactions are an elements ionization
energy and the strength of the chemical bonds formed. The chemical bond strength is closely
associated with the temperature at which that chemical will vaporize into either smaller
molecules or into individual elements. A plasma can act as the solution for two chemically
different solids that are in a shared volume. An element with low ionization energy will tend to
remain in the plasma unless it is captured into a strong chemical bond. The strong chemical
bond acts to raise the ionization energy and make it less likely that a heavy ion collision will
release it back into the plasma. The equilibrium begins to move towards higher ionization
energies. By manipulating the temperature of surfaces and the energy of the plasma a desired
chemical reactions can be selected for. Specific deposition of a desired chemical may be
achieved by pulling heat away from a plasma reactive surface to maintain an optimum
temperature.
Eventually an equilibrium will be reached where the electromagnetic fields will no longer
be adding energy to the plasma and the number of sputtered atoms will match the number of
atoms being captured by the rock surface. In addition the ions velocity will decrease because
their acceleration is being interrupted by collisions with other atoms or electrons. This increase
in collisions is a direct result of increasing plasma density.
A useful phenomena can occur when a solid derived plasma is allowed to cool and
condense is the creation of microparticles. Boulos M. I.,Fauchais P., Pfender E., (1994)
Thermal Plasmas.
The size and nature of these particles is dependent on many factors. As certain
components condense out of the plasma more quickly, they could form the seeds around which
the rest of the vapor will adhere. If these particles solidify before contacting the surface, they
could form spherical micro particles. These shape of these particles will partially restrict heat
flow when these particles fill a volume. Packed spherical particles have voids which will impede
the flow of heat. The voids act to thermally insulate them from the surrounding cooler rock.
The thermal insulation of their shape, along with their surface to volume ratio would allow the
particles to be returned to a plasma state with greater ease than solid rock.
Another possibility is that the micro particles could be returned to a plasma state by the
intense ultraviolet light created by nearby plasmas, without direct immersion in the plasma.
Another question, is for how long can these liquid particles maintain a temperature that will
allow them to be ionized or re-ignited by an electromagnetic source, is unknown. If these liquid
particles could maintain ignition temperature for a sufficient period of time, they could be
dropped into crevasses and then ignited before they reach the bottom.
Direct Methods of Heating the Plasma
A method to energize the plasma is by direct application of electrical power through
electrically heated filaments Moisan and Pelletier(1992) chapter 10. The electrons from the
electrically heated filaments can be directed against the rock by high voltage charges. Once
the plasma is created the high voltage will no longer be necessary. The circuit has similarities
to the ballast transformer used in fluorescent lighting.
Electrically heated filaments are also a primary component of electron tubes, which, can of
course function well in the vacuum of space. A less sophisticated industrial base is needed to
manufacture vacuum and gas filled tubes in space. It might be be easier to bootstrap and
maintain industrial power components based on older tube technology. The free electrons from
the heated filaments could have eough energy to start the plasma.
A laser or similar directed energy source could be fired into a rock fissure to take
advantage of surface fissures to act on deeper portions of the rock. The electrons emitted by
the heated filaments, along with the electromagnetic currents traveling through the filaments,
could ionize these particles and begin the plasma creation. Placing the electrodes/filaments of
an electrical generator at two fissures sharing a common plasma conduction path, would allow
the direct electrical heating of the plasma connecting the fissures.
Creation of Free Electrons and Enhanced Conductivity Paths
Plasmas may be generated within entirely sealed off voids within the rock by the use of
ionizing radiation sources. An ionizing radiation source such as an intense x-ray source could
be directed into the rock near a pocket or void. A microwave or RF beam could also be
directed to intersect the x-ray beam at some point near the pocket. The x-ray beam will create
free electrons in the rock with which the microwaves will interact to produce enough heating to
generate plasma in the pocket.
In the pocket near the intersection of these two energy sources, particles may be ionized
and ejected into the pocket. This will seed the plasma in the pocket and the microwave source
will begin heating the plasma and increasing its density. The plasma in the pocket will need to
be established very quickly to prevent heating and thereby increasing the conductivity and
microwave absorption of nearby rock. With the plasma established in this pocket or void in the
rock other possibilities will then exist.
Radioactive materials with short half-lives could be injected or physically placed within
fissures to create free electron sources within the rock. The interaction of the microwave beam
with these radioactive sources would be very similar to the x-ray example. Easily ionized
material could be mechanically transported through the surface fissures of the rock and then be
ionized, at some depth, beneath the rock face. This could allow plasma generation deep within
the rock, without the problems of maintaining and manipulating the plasma from the surface of
the rock.
In Situ Removal of Desired Components
There exists the possibility that the plasma could be used to selectively remove
components, or elements from the rock. This would mean that the slag, waste products, and
overburden would never need be handled or removed. The rock itself would become the
processing chamber. The plasma vapor generated in the rock could be vented or piped to a
sophisticated processing unit. The processing unit could condense and/or separate the desired
components. The presence of oxygen and nitrogen in the Earth's atmosphere makes this
technique difficult on the Earth's surface. Oxides and Nitrogen compounds tend to require
higher temperatures to vaporize than native metals and elements.
The position of the plasma within the rock could accurately be determined with a highly
collimated microwave system and a means of monitoring microwave reflections from the
plasma. With this position sensitivity, a very versatile method of cutting could become possible.
By having the plasma follow existing fissures it could be moved at a relatively high speed
through the rock. This could be used to sample areas where direct line-of-sight laser
spectroscopy would not work. This could also be helpful in tracking ore veins or broken or
discontinuous ore bodies. Once the end points of an ore vein are mapped the plasma could
vaporize a path following the vein.
If the material that the plasma is traveling through requires a higher temperature for
ionization than those atoms to recruit atoms from the surrounding rock to make up for losses.
Another factor that is dependent on the elements involved, would be pressure, and by default
the temperature, that the plasma would have to be maintained. The balance between
temperature and pressure would be fundamental to maintaining the integrity of the plasma
within changing rock chemistry.
The vacuum of space may make it economical to modify the existing techniques used for
isotope separation. Techniques used for isotope separation such as diffusion and selective
laser stimulation may be modified for use in separating and purifying individual elements.
Plasma processes consume high amounts of electrical energy making high purity silicon high
priority for use in solar cells.
Some Limitations on Plasma Manipulation by Electromagnetic Waves
Plasma may be created by several means, but to move and maintain the plasma without
direct contact will usually require electromagnetic fields. Plasma has a property referred to as
Debye Shielding, this shielding limits the depth that an electromagnetic field can penetrate into
a volume of plasma. For small cracks or fissures the affect of Debye Shielding should not be a
problem. The plasma density would need to be high to present any problems for heating a small
volume.
Plasma would work the most efficiently in a small volume where the energy requirements
for heating the plasma would not be excessive. Once a deep pocket of plasma has been created
the microwave generator could apply maximum power to heat the plasma in the pocket. The
plasma could then create a thermal inversion to fracture the rock between the plasma pocket
and the rock surface.
Apologies and Acknowledgments
I must apologize to anyone that I have not cited properly. I did very little research in
writing the original of this paper, and my haste was not meant to slight. If you feel that your
work was relevant and should have been cited, please contact me and I shall try to rectify it.
The original paper was written for the Space Resources Round Table of 2002. I was unable to
attend to give it. Special thanks to Dr. Michael Duke for letting me give a paper titled The
Ants of Toutatis' in 2001 and Dr. Leslie Gertsch for telling me about the books of William C.
Maurer.
Mauer, W.C. (1968). Novel Drilling Techniques
Lieberman M.A., Lichtenberg A.J.(1994). Principles of Plasma Discharges and Materials
Processing. A Wiley-Interscience Publication.
Moisan, M. Pelletier J. editors (1992). Microwave Excited Plasmas, Plasma Technology,
Elsevier Publishing
Boulos M. I.,Fauchais P., Pfender E., (1994) Thermal Plasmas Fundamentals and Applications
Volume 1 Plenum Press.
water. This would create high mechanical stresses across the sharp temperature gradient
between the cooled surface and heated rock below it. A thermal gradient that is above the
crystalline phase change temperature of quartz will produce a mechanical expansion greater
than could simple thermal expansion. The internal pressure generated by either effect could
cause material to flake off the surface, or to shatter the rock.
Microwaves were used for cutting and drilling into rock as shown in William C. Mauers
book Novel Drilling Techniques can be adapted for producing thermal inversions in rock. I
suggest that in the vacuum of space, microwaves can heat artificially generated plasmas to use
in rock disintegration and ore extraction.
Ordinary matter will become plasma when heated to a high enough temperature. A plasma
is a gaseous or vaporized material that contains atoms which have been ionized. Ionized atoms
have free electrons (similar to metallic conductors) which contribute to the unusual properties
of plasma state of matter. The plasma's electrical properties permit electromagnetic fields to
heat the plasma. Ionization can be as low as 1 atom per billion to completely ionized. In a single
element plasma, the plasma density and the relative temperature can be a good indicator for
the degree of ionization. At high pressures and temperatures the electrical conductivity, (by
weight), of a plasma is much greater than for room temperature metallic conductors.
Plasma conductivity is the one of the properties that allow plasmas to be manipulated by
magnetic and electrostatic fields while enclosed by rock. Plasma can absorb electromagnetic
waves and be heated. Like metallic conductors, a plasma can partially absorb and/or reflect
electromagnetic waves.
Most rocks, unless they are pure metals or similar conductors, will allow the passage of
electromagnetic waves to some depth within them. The electromagnetic waves used could be
relatively long wavelengths like radio waves, or much shorter wavelengths like microwaves.
The temperature of a plasma can be maintained at some depth beneath the rock surface by
absorbing energy from impinging electromagnetic waves.
Plasma Initiation
Any material object will become plasma if heated to a sufficient temperature. Heating the
rock surface with lasers, focused sunlight, or electric arcs can create a high temperature
plasma. The plasma created in the vacuum of space may persist for a longer period of time and
be more easily manipulated than at Earths atmosphere pressure.
The Basic Properties of Confined Plasmas
Most plasma applications to not confine plasmas with physical walls. In conventional
applications it is considered wasteful and potentially destructive to have the plasma contact the
container walls. In fusion research and industrial sputtering processes the plasmas interaction
with their containers is minimized by design.
The utility of plasmas for mining can be divided along two lines, mechanical and chemical.
Mechanical effects can include cutting through or fracturing the rock. The chemical effects are
dependent on the elemental species of the plasma and the kind of chemical exchanges that will
occur when a plasma is in contact with rocks with different chemistries.
Horta Plasma is dependent upon contact with the rock surface to be effective. The
technology requirements should be less complex in confining a plasma than for sputtering or
especially fusion applications. The energy requirements for creating and maintaining confined
plasmas though are quite high. A plasma can be viewed as being similar to the arc created in
terrestrial welding. The larger the volume of the arc, the larger the energy requirements. A
terrestrial arc for welding is under atmospheric pressure and may actually be too dense and hot
for our application.
Electrons and heavy ions lose energy when they impact the walls confining them. The
heavy ions also can contact the walls and be chemically bound or physically captured beneath
the confining surface. Energy and the constituent elements of the plasma are being continually
lost to the surrounding walls.
All confined plasmas require energy input to maintain their equilibrium condition. A
simplified equilibrium condition exists when a gas is energized into a plasma that is confined by
a material that it cannot chemically interact with, it's heavy ions cannot sputter the surface, and
the gas cannot be captured within the surface of the confining material. These conditions can be
met if the density and temperature of the gas are below some limit. This could also represent
the minimum energy requirements for a confined plasma. This can also be considered the pilot
light condition for a confined plasma.
Increasing the energy of the previous example and either the energy deposited on the
surface of the container will cause it to melt, or the kinetic energy of the gas's heavy ions will
sputter atoms from the surface of the container. Some of the sputtered atoms from the
container may become ionized and join the plasma.
Further increasing the energy will cause the plasma density to increase and the heat flow
to the container walls to increase. Sputtering and melting of the container will increase. At
some point the atoms of the plasma that are from the container material will exceed the
population of the starter gas. Increasing the input energy above this point will produce
mechanical and thermal stresses that will be destructive to the container wall.
Vacuum Dispersion Unconstrained
In the vacuum of space, the plasmas constituent atoms will disperse at high velocities into
space. The plasma will need to be contained by walls or fields. The magnetic mirror cusp of a
solenoid may be able to partially contain plasma on the surface of a rock. In the vacuum of
space the plasma might only be contained because it does not have a direct kinetic path or line
of sight path to the surface. After multiple impacts on surfaces, the plasma components may be
entirely captured before they could escape to the surface vacuum.
To maintain plasma pressure a rock surface could be sealed by fusing sand into the cracks
and fissures. Connected surface openings could be detected and located by their ionized
emissions. Within this sealed environment the plasma can undermine the rock, or begin
processing the material of the rock into more useful products. Enclosed within the rock, the
pressures and temperatures generated by the plasma could allow for efficient rock cutting or
processing.
Interaction Between Heated Plasma and Rock
The chemical interactions of plasmas can have some similarities to aqueous chemical
solutions. Some of properties that control plasma chemical reactions are an elements ionization
energy and the strength of the chemical bonds formed. The chemical bond strength is closely
associated with the temperature at which that chemical will vaporize into either smaller
molecules or into individual elements. A plasma can act as the solution for two chemically
different solids that are in a shared volume. An element with low ionization energy will tend to
remain in the plasma unless it is captured into a strong chemical bond. The strong chemical
bond acts to raise the ionization energy and make it less likely that a heavy ion collision will
release it back into the plasma. The equilibrium begins to move towards higher ionization
energies. By manipulating the temperature of surfaces and the energy of the plasma a desired
chemical reactions can be selected for. Specific deposition of a desired chemical may be
achieved by pulling heat away from a plasma reactive surface to maintain an optimum
temperature.
Eventually an equilibrium will be reached where the electromagnetic fields will no longer
be adding energy to the plasma and the number of sputtered atoms will match the number of
atoms being captured by the rock surface. In addition the ions velocity will decrease because
their acceleration is being interrupted by collisions with other atoms or electrons. This increase
in collisions is a direct result of increasing plasma density.
A useful phenomena can occur when a solid derived plasma is allowed to cool and
condense is the creation of microparticles. Boulos M. I.,Fauchais P., Pfender E., (1994)
Thermal Plasmas.
The size and nature of these particles is dependent on many factors. As certain
components condense out of the plasma more quickly, they could form the seeds around which
the rest of the vapor will adhere. If these particles solidify before contacting the surface, they
could form spherical micro particles. These shape of these particles will partially restrict heat
flow when these particles fill a volume. Packed spherical particles have voids which will impede
the flow of heat. The voids act to thermally insulate them from the surrounding cooler rock.
The thermal insulation of their shape, along with their surface to volume ratio would allow the
particles to be returned to a plasma state with greater ease than solid rock.
Another possibility is that the micro particles could be returned to a plasma state by the
intense ultraviolet light created by nearby plasmas, without direct immersion in the plasma.
Another question, is for how long can these liquid particles maintain a temperature that will
allow them to be ionized or re-ignited by an electromagnetic source, is unknown. If these liquid
particles could maintain ignition temperature for a sufficient period of time, they could be
dropped into crevasses and then ignited before they reach the bottom.
Direct Methods of Heating the Plasma
A method to energize the plasma is by direct application of electrical power through
electrically heated filaments Moisan and Pelletier(1992) chapter 10. The electrons from the
electrically heated filaments can be directed against the rock by high voltage charges. Once
the plasma is created the high voltage will no longer be necessary. The circuit has similarities
to the ballast transformer used in fluorescent lighting.
Electrically heated filaments are also a primary component of electron tubes, which, can of
course function well in the vacuum of space. A less sophisticated industrial base is needed to
manufacture vacuum and gas filled tubes in space. It might be be easier to bootstrap and
maintain industrial power components based on older tube technology. The free electrons from
the heated filaments could have eough energy to start the plasma.
A laser or similar directed energy source could be fired into a rock fissure to take
advantage of surface fissures to act on deeper portions of the rock. The electrons emitted by
the heated filaments, along with the electromagnetic currents traveling through the filaments,
could ionize these particles and begin the plasma creation. Placing the electrodes/filaments of
an electrical generator at two fissures sharing a common plasma conduction path, would allow
the direct electrical heating of the plasma connecting the fissures.
Creation of Free Electrons and Enhanced Conductivity Paths
Plasmas may be generated within entirely sealed off voids within the rock by the use of
ionizing radiation sources. An ionizing radiation source such as an intense x-ray source could
be directed into the rock near a pocket or void. A microwave or RF beam could also be
directed to intersect the x-ray beam at some point near the pocket. The x-ray beam will create
free electrons in the rock with which the microwaves will interact to produce enough heating to
generate plasma in the pocket.
In the pocket near the intersection of these two energy sources, particles may be ionized
and ejected into the pocket. This will seed the plasma in the pocket and the microwave source
will begin heating the plasma and increasing its density. The plasma in the pocket will need to
be established very quickly to prevent heating and thereby increasing the conductivity and
microwave absorption of nearby rock. With the plasma established in this pocket or void in the
rock other possibilities will then exist.
Radioactive materials with short half-lives could be injected or physically placed within
fissures to create free electron sources within the rock. The interaction of the microwave beam
with these radioactive sources would be very similar to the x-ray example. Easily ionized
material could be mechanically transported through the surface fissures of the rock and then be
ionized, at some depth, beneath the rock face. This could allow plasma generation deep within
the rock, without the problems of maintaining and manipulating the plasma from the surface of
the rock.
In Situ Removal of Desired Components
There exists the possibility that the plasma could be used to selectively remove
components, or elements from the rock. This would mean that the slag, waste products, and
overburden would never need be handled or removed. The rock itself would become the
processing chamber. The plasma vapor generated in the rock could be vented or piped to a
sophisticated processing unit. The processing unit could condense and/or separate the desired
components. The presence of oxygen and nitrogen in the Earth's atmosphere makes this
technique difficult on the Earth's surface. Oxides and Nitrogen compounds tend to require
higher temperatures to vaporize than native metals and elements.
The position of the plasma within the rock could accurately be determined with a highly
collimated microwave system and a means of monitoring microwave reflections from the
plasma. With this position sensitivity, a very versatile method of cutting could become possible.
By having the plasma follow existing fissures it could be moved at a relatively high speed
through the rock. This could be used to sample areas where direct line-of-sight laser
spectroscopy would not work. This could also be helpful in tracking ore veins or broken or
discontinuous ore bodies. Once the end points of an ore vein are mapped the plasma could
vaporize a path following the vein.
If the material that the plasma is traveling through requires a higher temperature for
ionization than those atoms to recruit atoms from the surrounding rock to make up for losses.
Another factor that is dependent on the elements involved, would be pressure, and by default
the temperature, that the plasma would have to be maintained. The balance between
temperature and pressure would be fundamental to maintaining the integrity of the plasma
within changing rock chemistry.
The vacuum of space may make it economical to modify the existing techniques used for
isotope separation. Techniques used for isotope separation such as diffusion and selective
laser stimulation may be modified for use in separating and purifying individual elements.
Plasma processes consume high amounts of electrical energy making high purity silicon high
priority for use in solar cells.
Some Limitations on Plasma Manipulation by Electromagnetic Waves
Plasma may be created by several means, but to move and maintain the plasma without
direct contact will usually require electromagnetic fields. Plasma has a property referred to as
Debye Shielding, this shielding limits the depth that an electromagnetic field can penetrate into
a volume of plasma. For small cracks or fissures the affect of Debye Shielding should not be a
problem. The plasma density would need to be high to present any problems for heating a small
volume.
Plasma would work the most efficiently in a small volume where the energy requirements
for heating the plasma would not be excessive. Once a deep pocket of plasma has been created
the microwave generator could apply maximum power to heat the plasma in the pocket. The
plasma could then create a thermal inversion to fracture the rock between the plasma pocket
and the rock surface.
Apologies and Acknowledgments
I must apologize to anyone that I have not cited properly. I did very little research in
writing the original of this paper, and my haste was not meant to slight. If you feel that your
work was relevant and should have been cited, please contact me and I shall try to rectify it.
The original paper was written for the Space Resources Round Table of 2002. I was unable to
attend to give it. Special thanks to Dr. Michael Duke for letting me give a paper titled The
Ants of Toutatis' in 2001 and Dr. Leslie Gertsch for telling me about the books of William C.
Maurer.
Mauer, W.C. (1968). Novel Drilling Techniques
Lieberman M.A., Lichtenberg A.J.(1994). Principles of Plasma Discharges and Materials
Processing. A Wiley-Interscience Publication.
Moisan, M. Pelletier J. editors (1992). Microwave Excited Plasmas, Plasma Technology,
Elsevier Publishing
Boulos M. I.,Fauchais P., Pfender E., (1994) Thermal Plasmas Fundamentals and Applications
Volume 1 Plenum Press.