Magnetic sail significant in the long term. In typical magnetic sail designs, the magnetic field is generated by a loop of superconducting wire. Because loops of current-carrying conductors tend to be forced outwards towards a circular shape by their own magnetic field, the sail could be deployed simply by unspooling the conductor and applying a current through it. The solar wind is a continuous stream of plasma that flows outwards from the Sun: near the Earth's orbit, it contains several million protons and electrons per cubic meter and flows at . The magnetic sail introduces a magnetic field into this plasma flow
Plasma (physics) ionization formula_1, the electron-ion collision frequency can equal the electron-neutral collision frequency: formula_11 is the limit separating a plasma from being partially or fully ionized. Most of "technological" (engineered) plasmas are weakly ionized gases. Based on the relative temperatures of the electrons, ions and neutrals, plasmas are classified as "thermal" or "non-thermal" (also referred to as "cold plasmas"). A particular and unusual case of "inverse" nonthermal plasma is the very high temperature plasma produced by the Z machine, where ions are much hotter than electrons. Since plasmas are very good electrical conductors, electric potentials play an important role. The average