The role of superconducting shields in electrodynamic propulsion

Abstract. An electrodynamic tether can propel a spacecraft through a planetary magnetized plasma without using propellant. In the classical embodiment of an electrodynamic tether, the ambient magnetic field exerts a Lorentz force on the current along the tether, the ambient plasma providing circuit closure for the current. A suggested propulsion scheme would hypothetically eliminate tether performance dependence on the plasma density by using a full wire loop to close the current circuit, and a superconductor to shield a loop segment from the external uniform magnetic field and cancel the Lorentz force on that segment. Here, we use basic electromagnetic laws to explain how such a scheme cannot produce a net force. Because there is no net current in the superconducting shield, the circulation of the magnetic field along a closed line outside the full cross section, in its plane, is just due to the current flowing in the loop segment. The presence of the superconducting shield simply moves the Lorentz force from the shielded loop segment to the shield itself and, as a result, the total magnetic force, acting on full loop plus shield, remains zero.