Summary
The Charge Harmony Disruption Opportunity will explore physics solutions in lab experiments to enable new designs for electric propulsion (EP) thrusters capable of creating self-neutralized plasma via atmospheric air as the ionization medium.
Self-Neutralized Air-Breathing Plasma (SNAP) is a novel concept for EP, which has the potential to support high-altitude operations between 70 and 90 km (approximately 230,000 to 295,000 feet).
This kind of air-breathing EP system would shed the heavy weight typically associated with space EP systems, which carry their own ionization gas (such as a tank of helium-xenon) and instead uses air as it passes through an ionization chamber to create plasma and thrust.
If successful, this approach eliminates the need for an external neutralization source at the thruster exit, further reducing complexity and weight of an in-atmospheric EP platform.