At 05:55 AM 2/22/2007, Marc Vermeersch wrote:
All,
So why is the maglev principle (magnetic levitation) http://www.google.be/search?hl=nl&q=maglev&meta= not applicable in space?
Magnetic levitation applied to trains generates an upward force equal and opposite to the earth's gravitation.
Much larger (relative) difference in separation between the pole pairs that are repelling each other. One pair (top of the track and bottom of the train) are almost touching, the other ends of the fields are much more widely separated.
In the case of a satellite around the Earth, the difference in separation is almost zero (width of the satellite, compared to the distance from the satellite to the Earth's magnetic poles). The gradient of the Earth's magnetic field is quite small, even near the magnetic poles. You could get a very small lift by orienting the satellite correctly and turning on the magnetic field as it passes over the poles, but the effect would be incredibly tiny, and holding the orientation would take another system, to prevent the system providing torque instead of thrust (if that uses fuel, then the exercise is pointless ;) ), and if it's magnetic, it could nullify the thrust from the magnetic thruster.
73 de VK3JED http://vkradio.com