RU2761693C1 - Ion rocket engine, method of its operation and coroning electrode - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: rocketry.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to rocketry. The ionic rocket engine contains a chamber connected to each other and located coaxially, containing a head and a cylindrical part, to which a magnetic plasma accelerator is connected, and then a supersonic gas-dynamic nozzle with converging and expanding parts, a means of creating a corona discharge. The means for creating a corona discharge is made in the form of a corona electrode installed along the axis of symmetry of the chamber. The corona electrode contains a “cold” part in the head and a “hot” part with an emitter in the chamber cavity. The emitter contains pointed cones. At least two accelerating electrodes are installed inside the chamber. A neutralizer electrode is installed at the outlet end of the supersonic gas-dynamic nozzle. The chamber and the supersonic gas-dynamic nozzle are made with a cooling gap between the "cold" and "hot" walls. The cavity of the gap is connected to the propellant branch pipe installed concentrically to the outlet end of the nozzle, and the laser spark plugs are installed in the cavity of the "cold" part of the corona electrode.

EFFECT: ensures reliable start-up and improved cooling.

10 cl, 10 dwg

Description

The group of inventions relates to the field of rocket propulsion on liquid fuel using ions and plasma.

While humans have only set foot on the moon, landings on distant objects have been reserved only for unmanned aerial vehicles and robots.

However, people are very interested in visiting Mars and other planets. In addition to real landing problems and high costs, there is the problem of flight duration. On average, Mars is about 225.3 million kilometers from Earth. Even at its closest point, it is still about 56.3 million kilometers from our planet. Using conventional chemical rockets that transport us into outer space, it will take at least seven months to get there - not exactly a short amount of time. Is there a way to make it faster? Yes! With the use of plasma rocket engines!

This type of motor uses a combination of electric and magnetic fields to break down propellant atoms and molecules into a collection of particles that are either positively charged (ions) or negatively charged (electrons). In other words, the propellant gas becomes plasma.

Many configurations of this engine then apply an electric field to extract ions from the rear of the engine, which thrust the spacecraft in the opposite direction. Thanks to this technology, the spacecraft could theoretically reach speeds of 198,000 km / h. As a result, Mars can be reached in 40 days.

Plasma technology is also being used in rockets to help us traverse outer space, and it promises to take people to places we could only dream of. These rockets must be in the vacuum of outer space to operate, since the density of the air near the earth's surface slows down the acceleration of the ions in the plasma needed to create thrust, so we cannot actually use them to launch from Earth. However, some of these plasma thrusters have been in space since 1971. NASA typically uses them on the International Space Station and satellites, as well as the primary source for deep space propulsion.

Known plasma rocket engine for RF patent for invention No. 2219371, IPC F03H 1/00, publ. 20.12.2003.

This closed electron drift plasma rocket engine uses a magnetic system to create a magnetic field in the main annular channel for ionization and acceleration. The magnetic system comprises a substantially radial first outer pole piece, a tapered second outer pole piece, a substantially radial first inner pole piece, a tapered second inner pole piece, a plurality of outer magnetic cores surrounded by outer coils for interconnecting the first and second outer pole pieces ...

The disadvantage of such motors is their low efficiency and design complexity.

Known plasma jet engine containing interconnected and located coaxially a combustion chamber, consisting of an ignition and combustion chamber and having a feed nozzle, a magnetic plasma accelerator and a hydrodynamic nozzle (application DE No. 3900427, MKI F03H 1/00, publ. 1990) ...

The disadvantage of this engine is high fuel consumption with low jet thrust.

The calorific value of the fuel and the amount of oxygen (air) determine the combustion temperature. The engine power and fuel consumption depend on the combustion mode. Extremely important in jet engine building is not only the rise in the combustion temperature, but also the rate of combustion and the propagation of the combustion front of the combustible mixture. The process of engine operation includes the nature of the supply of reagents to the combustion zone and mutual "diffusion" in the reaction zone. Intensive evaporation and gassing of fuel, diffusion of the oxidizer and acceleration of the combustion front lead to an increase in pressure and the formation of a shock (explosive) wave propagating along the nozzle guides.

Depending on the flight altitude of the aircraft (aircraft or rocket), the engine will operate in different modes: dense layers of the atmosphere; in the stratosphere (up to 50 km above the Earth) and the mesosphere (over 50 km).

Known plasma jet engine for RF patent for invention No. 2099572, IPC F02K 11/00, publ. 12/20/1997, prototype.

This plasma jet engine contains a combustion chamber connected to each other and located coaxially, consisting of an ignition chamber with fuel and oxidizer supply nozzles and a converging - expanding torus part, to which a magnetic plasma accelerator is connected, and moreover - a supersonic gas-dynamic nozzle with a converging torus and conical expanding parts, at least one igniter on the ignition chamber, on the torus expanding part of the chamber, corona electrodes.

Disadvantages of this engine: inability to work in space, poor ignition, unreliable cooling of the nozzle and ineffective thrust vector control.

The tasks of creating a group of inventions: to increase the engine thrust with its small dimensions and to ensure a reliable start.

The achieved technical result: to increase the engine thrust with its small dimensions and to ensure a reliable start.

The solution of these problems has been achieved in an ion rocket engine containing a chamber connected to each other and located coaxially, containing a head and a cylindrical part to which a magnetic plasma accelerator is connected and then a supersonic gas-dynamic nozzle with converging and expanding parts, a means of creating a corona discharge, characterized in that, that the means for creating a corona discharge is made in the form of a corona electrode installed along the axis of symmetry of the chamber and containing a "cold" part in the head and a "hot" part with an emitter in the chamber cavity, the emitter contains pointed cones, at least two accelerating electrodes are installed inside the chamber, on the outlet end of the supersonic gas-dynamic nozzle is equipped with a neutralizing electrode, the chamber and the supersonic gas-dynamic nozzle are made with a cooling gap between the “cold” and “hot” walls, the gap cavity is connected to a fuel manifold mounted concentrically to the outlet end of the nozzle, and laser spark plugs are installed in the cavity of the "cold" part of the corona electrode.

The magnetic accelerator contains an axial winding installed concentrically to its body, to which electric wires are connected, in which a current regulator is installed.

The chamber may contain a nozzle head with propellant nozzles, and propellant nozzles are made on the emitter between the pointed cones.

The accelerating electrodes can be made in the form of annular bushings fixed inside the chamber through an electrical insulating gasket.

At the outlet end of the expanding part of the gas-dynamic nozzle, a nozzle-probe is hinged and rotatable.

The probe attachment can be made in the form of telescopic rods.

The solution of these problems is achieved in the corona electrode of an ion rocket engine, containing cold and hot parts in the form of truncated cones with a radiator at the end of the hot part, several laser spark plugs are installed in the cavity of the cold part, the focus of which is on the inner surface of the radiating end, on the side wall of the housing connecting holes are made, on the emitting end face - propellant nozzles, characterized in that the emitter is made hollow in the form of a sphere with two concentric walls: an outer wall and an inner wall with a cooling gap between them and pointed cones on the “hot” outer wall of the emitter.

The corona electrode of an ion rocket engine may contain a central spark plug installed along the axis of the combustion chamber and several lateral ones installed at an angle to its axis from 7 to 10 °.

The emitting surface of the corona electrode is made in the form of pointed cones installed radially on the outer wall of the emitter.

At the intersection of the longitudinal axis of symmetry of the engine with the walls of the radiator, a central platform is made, on which one of the pointed cones is installed.

The proposed engine is shown schematically in FIG. 1 ... 10, where:

in fig. 1 shows a longitudinal section of the engine,

in fig. 2 shows a view A in FIG. one,

in fig. 3 shows a corona electrode with laser spark plugs,

in fig. 4 shows view C,

in fig. 5 shows the view D,

in fig. 6 shows a diagram of a laser spark plug,

in fig. 7 shows a fragment of the emitting end of the corona electrode,

in fig. 8 shows in more detail the construction of a laser spark plug,

in fig. 9 shows the fastening of the accelerating electrodes, section B-B,

in fig. 10 shows a diagram of the discharges in the chamber.

List of conventions used in the description.

camera 1,

head 2,

nozzle plate 3,

cylindrical part 4,

corona electrode 5,

magnetic plasma accelerator 6,

supersonic gas-dynamic nozzle 7,

tapered body 8,

propellant cavity 9,

"Cold part" 10,

"Hot part" 11,

emitter 12,

building 13,

outer end 14,

outer wall 15,

inner wall 16,

cooling gap 17.

holes 18,

"Cold cavity" 19.

Hot outer wall 20,

"Cold" inner wall 21,

cooling gap 22,

central cavity 23.

pointed cone 24,

central area 25,

chamber 26 cavity,

outer surface 27,

electrode cavity 28,

"Hot" wall of the nozzle 29,

"Cold" nozzle wall 30,

cooling gap 31,

ribs 32,

contact welding 33,

exit end 34,

propellant 35 manifold,

laser spark plug 36,

communicating hole 37,

cooling holes 38,

propellant nozzles 39,

ion dynamic probe 40,

telescopic rod 41,

hinge 42,

rod 43,

drive 44,

pump unit 45,

unit drive 46,

propellant pump 47,

propellant outlet pipe 48,

flow regulator 49,

regulator drive 50,

propellant inlet pipeline 51,

shut-off valve propellant 52,

axial winding 53,

control unit 54,

electrical wires 55,

current regulator 56,

power supply unit 57,

power cable 58,

pump unit 59,

fiber optic cable 60,

optical fiber 61,

high voltage source 62,

first high-voltage wire 63,

second high-voltage wire 64,

accelerating electrode 65,

electrical wire 66,

the tapering part 67,

conical expanding part 68,

compensation electrode 69,

control channel 70,

glass 71,

cavity 72,

microchip laser 73,

metal sleeve 74,

vacuum metal tube 75,

focusing lens 76,

cylindrical body 77,

butt 78,

bottom 79.

threaded section 80,

hole 81,

seal 82,

plug 83,

axial bore 84,

seal 85.

nut 86,

central hole 87,

seal 88,

damping means 89,

grounding 90,

outlet wire 91,

optional permanent ring magnet 92,

insulating pad 93,

current lead 94,

electrical insulating sleeve 95,

discharge line 96.

The engine (Fig. 1) consists of four main blocks: interconnected and coaxially located along the axis of symmetry.

First there is a combustion chamber 1, with a head 2 and a plate 3 and a cylindrical part 4. A corona electrode 5 is installed on the plate 3. A magnetic plasma accelerator 6 is installed on the cylindrical part 4, and then there is a supersonic gas-dynamic nozzle 7.

The chamber 1 with the head 2 is shown in more detail in FIG. 2. The head 2 has a conical body 8. Between the plate 3 and the conical body 8, a cavity of the propellant 9 is made.

The corona electrode 5 contains a "cold part" 10 and a "hot part" 11 with an emitter 12 at the end.

The "cold part" 10 is made in the form of a body 13 in the form of a truncated cone with an outer end 14 and is connected to the plate 3 and the "hot part" 11.

The "hot part" 11 has two coaxially located walls, an outer 15 and an inner 16 with a cooling gap 17 between them. In the body 13 of the "cold part" 10 there are holes 18 for the passage of the propellant into the "cold cavity" 19.

The cooling gap 17 communicates with the "cold cavity" 19.

The emitter 12 is made spherical with two walls "outer wall" 20 and an inner wall 21. There is a gap for cooling 22 between them. the intersection of the longitudinal axis of symmetry OO with walls 20 and 21. There is no clearance for cooling 22 in this place for heating one of the pointed cones 24. To create a saturated volumetric discharge of the electric field, a plurality of pointed cones 24 installed radially on the “hot” outer wall 20 are used. For the same purpose, several accelerating electrodes were used 65.

The cone 21 (Fig. 3) has an apex angle:

ϕ - 7 ... 10 °

Base diameter

d = (0.08 ... 0.12) D, where:

d is the diameter of the base of the pointed cone 24,

D is the inner diameter of the radiator 12.

The purpose of the corona electrode 5 is the ionization of combustion products mixed with propellen or pure propellant without additives.

The cylindrical part 4 of the chamber 1 and the supersonic gas-dynamic nozzle 7 contain a "hot" wall of the nozzle 29 and a "cold" wall of the nozzle 30 and a cooling gap 31 with ribs 32 between them. The ribs 32 are made on a steel hot wall 29 and are welded to the "cold wall of the nozzle" 30 by resistance welding 33.

At the outlet end 34 of the supersonic gas-dynamic nozzle 7, a propellant manifold 35 is installed for supplying the propellant in order to cool the supersonic gas-dynamic nozzle 7, the cylindrical part 4 of the chamber 1 and all laser ignition 24.

Several laser spark plugs 36 are installed on the corona electrode 5 inside the cavity of the electrode 16. The laser spark plug 36 raises the temperature of the central area 25 of the corona electrode 5 when the engine is running.

The focus F of the laser spark plugs 36 is located on the inner surface of the center pad 25, which is spherical.

When the engine is running on ions, its thrust is significantly reduced in comparison with engines running on chemical fuel. But the specific impulse increases 5 ... 10 times, and the operating time increases thousands of times. In this case, energy reserves can be replenished from space using solar panels (not shown).

Communication holes 37 are made on the body of the "cold" part 10 of the corona electrode 5 for the passage of the propellant into the cavity of the propellant 9, and cooling holes 38 for cooling laser spark plugs 25.

The propellant enters the chamber 26 through the propellant nozzles 39. At the outlet end 34, an ion-dynamic probe 40 is fixed, which contains telescopic rods 41 mounted on hinges 42, Telescopic rods 41 are made in the form of rods 43, to which actuators 44 are attached.

The engine (Fig. 1) contains a pump unit 45, which contains a drive unit 46 and a propellant pump 47, connected to the drive unit 46.

The propellant outlet pipe 48 through the flow regulator 49 and the regulator drive 50 are connected to the propellant manifold 35.

The propellant inlet line 51 is connected to the propellant pump 47 inlet. A propellant shut-off valve 52 is installed in the propellant inlet line 51.

The engine has an axial winding 53 for accelerating ions in a magnetic plasma accelerator 6, mounted on a steel cylindrical part 4.

The engine for controlling all of its systems has a control unit 54, which is connected with electric wires 55 to a current regulator 56, a power supply unit 57, which is connected to a pump unit 59 by power cables 58.

The pump unit 59 is connected to the laser spark plugs 24 by an optical fiber cable 60 containing optical fibers 61.

The engine contains a high-voltage source 62, the first high-voltage wire 62 is connected to the plate 3, and the second high-voltage wire 64 is connected to the accelerating electrode 65. The high voltage source 62 is connected via the low voltage line by electric wires 66 to the power unit 57. As a power supply unit 57 can be used by solar panels or a generator.

The supersonic gas-dynamic nozzle 7 contains a converging part 67, a conical expanding part 68. At the outlet end 23 of the supersonic gas-dynamic nozzle 7, a compensation electrode 69 is installed to remove negative electrons.

The engine contains control channels 70, connected to the outputs of the control unit 54 and all drives.

The engine must contain several laser spark plugs 24 with one located along the axis of the engine RO and the others parallel to it or at an angle to the axis of 7 ... 10 °.

The construction of the laser spark plug 24 is shown in FIG. 4.

On the head 2, parallel to the axis OO of the chamber 1, a corona electrode 5 with built-in laser spark plugs 24 is installed (Figs. 1 and 4). The use of several laser spark plugs 24 is necessary because their repair in flight is practically impossible and if a single laser spark plug fails, further flight continuation will be impossible.

The laser spark plug 24 is made in the form of a glass 60 with a cavity 61 \ in which a microchip laser 73 is installed (Figs. 4 and 5).

The most common types of laser crystals for microchip lasers are: Nd: YAG and Nd: YVO ₄ with wavelengths ranging from 1-1.3 microns, in exceptional cases 0.95 microns. The spectral range of radiation is rather wide due to the short length of the resonator region. Structurally, the laser can be made using one more element, which is located between the active medium and the ends of the mirrors. For example, it can be a nonlinear crystal that is used as an electro-optical Q-switch or intracavity frequency doubling; an unalloyed transparent plate can also be used to increase power or effective area. Passively Q-switched microchip lasers allow pulse frequencies in excess of 100 kHz, and sometimes even several megahertz. At very low pulse times, the peak power of such a laser can be several kilowatts. To ignite the fuel components in the gas generator, power may be required several times higher than the power of the ignition devices of the combustion chamber. This is due to two reasons: the use of cryogenic fuel components and non-optimal ratio of fuel components.

FIG. 6 is shown almost identical to the corona electrode 5 in FIG. 4, except for the use of one propellen nozzle 39 instead of several and the use of an annular emitting surface 27 instead of a conical one and the placement of the focus of the laser spark plug F in the inner cavity 26 of the combustion chamber 1.

FIG. 6 shows a diagram of heating the central area 25 of the corona electrode 5.

FIG. 7 shows in more detail the emitter 12, or rather its fragment with a central area 25

A more detailed design of the laser spark plug is shown in FIG. eight.

It contains a cavity 72 of the cup 71 is connected by a metal sleeve 74 to the combustion zone. Inside the metal sleeve 74, a vacuum metal tube 75 is installed with a focusing lens 76 at its end. The other end of the vacuum metal tube 75 is connected to the microchip laser 73. The microchip laser 73 is connected to the pump unit 59 by the optical fiber 61. The pump unit 59 is connected to the power supply unit 57 by electric wires 66.

The laser spark plug 24 (Figs. 4 and 5), as mentioned earlier, contains a glass 71, which, in turn, contains a cylindrical body 77 and an end 78 on the bottom 79. On the bottom 79 there is a threaded section 80 with an opening 81 for the passage of a vacuum metal tube 75, which is sealed by seals 82. The top of the cup 71 is closed with a plug 83 having an axial hole 84 for outputting the optical fiber 61, which is sealed by a seal 85, pressed by a nut 86 with a central hole 87. The plug 83 is sealed relative to the cup 71 by a seal 88.

The microchip laser 73 and the vacuum metal tube 75 are installed inside the damping means 89, which is made of metal rubber.

The negative terminal of the power supply 57 is grounded by ground 90, and the take-off wire 91 is connected to it.

On the annular part 4 of the chamber 1, an additional permanent annular magnet 92 with axial magnetization can be installed (Fig. 1). It is designed to intensify the formation of ions without consuming electrical energy.

FIG. 9 shows a section B-B to demonstrate the attachment of the accelerating electrodes to the hot wall of the nozzle 29 through the insulating gasket 93. The current lead 94 is brought out through the electrical insulating sleeve 95 to prevent voltage from entering the metal parts of the chamber 1 and the walls of the nozzles 28 and 29.

FIG. 10 shows a chamber with an emitter and accelerating electrodes 65 and a diagram of the arrangement of the discharge lines 96.

Obviously, the use of several accelerating electrodes, a ferric emitter 12 with a plurality of radially mounted pointed cones 24 leads to the filling of the entire free volume of the chamber 26 cavity with discharge lines 96.

This greatly increases the formation of ions and the thrust of the ion engine with a small size.

Engine operation

When the ion engine is operating (Fig. 1 ... 10), the pump unit 59 is turned on and the laser beam is fed through the optical fiber cable 60 and through a specific optical fiber 61 into one of the laser spark plugs 36 and then through the focusing lens 76 to the central platform 25 for heating the central pointed cone 99 (Fig. 1 and 2). Then turn on all laser spark plugs 36.

A high voltage source 62 is turned on (Figs. 1 and 10) and a high voltage is applied to the corona electrode 5, between the corona electrode 5, the tone emitter 12, and all corona electrodes 65, to which the second high-voltage wire 64 is connected, corona discharges occur and ionization of the products occurs combustion and its transformation into plasma and the formation of ions under the influence of a magnetic field created using a magnetic plasma accelerator 6 and in the presence of an additional annular permanent magnet 79 using this magnet.

Plasma is ejected from the supersonic gas-dynamic nozzle 7 together with the combustion products.

In this case, the enthalpy of the ion-radiation ionized plasma increases. The source of electrons in the above reactions is a pulsating corona discharge in a high-temperature ionized plasma. Hot ion-radiation plasma from the chamber 1 enters the magnetic accelerator 6, where it is accelerated and separated by a rotating alternating magnetic field.

With the concentration and flow of surface charges from ionizing gases from the ion-dynamic probe 40, an additional reactive force arises.

To control the thrust vector of the ion thruster, it contains an ion-dynamic probe 40 (FIG. 1), which has telescopic rods 41 that can rotate around hinges 42 to control the thrust vector. Electrical charges are drained from the extended ion dynamic probe 40, creating reactive force and torque to rotate the aircraft. During operation of the ion dynamic probe 40, the outflowing positive ions create an additional reactive force.

Negative charges from the compensation electrode 69 are transmitted through the outlet wire 91 to the power supply 67 for charging it.

The thrust generated by the ion dynamic probe 40 engine operating in the ion engine mode is small, but it can operate for a long time (several days or months) with a small consumption of an inert propellant gas. Due to the fact that the rate of outflow of ions and plasma is tens and hundreds of times higher than the rate of outflow of combustion products (which does not exceed M = 4.5), there is a constant increase in the flight speed of the aircraft for a long time to very high speeds.

To activate the ionization process and the formation of plasma from the laser spark plugs 25, laser beam pulses are periodically applied to the corona electrode 5 to heat it up and create a volume corona discharge.

An additional permanent annular magnet 79 with axial magnetization installed on the cylindrical part 4 of the chamber 1 creates an additional magnetic field in the cavity of the chamber 26 and enhances the ionization in it.

The use of a group of inventions allowed:

- to increase the engine thrust with its small dimensions due to the intensification of the formation of ions through the use of several accelerating electrodes and the use of a spherical emitter,

- to increase the reliability of the engine through the use of several corona cooled laser spark plugs with an inert propellant,

- improve engine starting by using multiple laser spark plugs and a central platform on the emitter with the focus of all laser spark plugs on it,

- improve engine cooling by using a propellant cooling system.

- improve the controllability of missiles with a developed engine installed on them through the use of an ion-dynamic probe with telescopic rods mounted on hinges,

- to ensure flight safety by using an inert propellant gas as the main fuel component.

Claims (10)

1. An ion rocket engine containing a chamber connected to each other and located coaxially, containing a head and a cylindrical part to which a magnetic plasma accelerator is connected and then a supersonic gas-dynamic nozzle with converging and expanding parts, a means for creating a corona discharge, characterized in that the means for creating corona discharge is made in the form of a corona electrode installed along the axis of symmetry of the chamber and containing a "cold" part in the head and a "hot" part with an emitter in the chamber cavity, the emitter contains pointed cones, at least two accelerating electrodes are installed inside the chamber, at the outlet end of the supersonic of the gas-dynamic nozzle, a neutralizing electrode is installed, the chamber and the supersonic gas-dynamic nozzle are made with a cooling gap between the "cold" and "hot" walls, the gap cavity is connected to a fuel manifold mounted concentrically to the outlet end of the nozzle, and the laser spark plugs are installed inserted in the cavity of the "cold" part of the corona electrode. 2. The ionic rocket engine according to claim 1, characterized in that the magnetic accelerator contains an axial winding installed concentrically to its body, to which electric wires are connected, in which a current regulator is installed. 3. Ion rocket engine according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the chamber contains a nozzle head with propellant nozzles, and propellant nozzles are made on the emitter between the pointed cones. 4. The ionic rocket engine according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the accelerating electrodes are made in the form of annular bushings fixed inside the chamber through an electrical insulating gasket. 5. Ion rocket engine according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that a probe nozzle is hinged and rotatably attached to the outlet end of the expanding part of the gas-dynamic nozzle. 6. Ion rocket engine according to claim 5, characterized in that the probe nozzle is made in the form of telescopic rods. 7. Corona electrode of an ion rocket engine, containing cold and hot parts in the form of truncated cones with an emitter at the end of the hot part, several laser spark plugs are installed in the cavity of the cold part, the focus of which is on the inner surface of the emitting end, connecting holes are made on the side wall of the body , on the emitting end - a propellant nozzle, characterized in that the emitter is made hollow in the form of a sphere with two concentric walls: an outer wall and an inner wall with a cooling gap between them and pointed cones on the “hot” outer wall of the emitter. 8. Corona electrode of an ion rocket engine according to claim 7, characterized in that it contains a central spark plug installed along the axis of the combustion chamber and several lateral ones installed at an angle to its axis from 7 to 10 °. 9. Corona electrode of an ion rocket engine according to claim 8, characterized in that the emitting surface of the corona electrode is made in the form of pointed cones installed radially on the outer wall of the emitter. 10. The corona electrode of an ion rocket engine according to claim 9, characterized in that at the intersection of the longitudinal axis of symmetry of the engine with the walls of the emitter, a central platform is made, on which one of the pointed cones is installed.

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