DailyDirt: Spaceworthy Engines That Will Take Us 'To Infinity And Beyond!'

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Mon, Sep 17th 2012 5:00pm — Joyce Hung

Humans -- not content to be stuck on this planet and itching to find alien life -- are hard at work developing better ways to send satellites and spacecraft into orbit and outer space. If we actually want to colonize Mars by 2023, then some new propulsion technologies might be in order. Here are a few examples of various efforts going on around the world.

MIT researchers have developed a penny-sized rocket thruster that runs on jets of ion beams. The thruster is flat and square, like a computer chip, and covered with 500 microscopic tips that emit ion beams strong enough to propel a shoebox-sized satellite. Placing several of these thrusters on a small satellite could enable it to move to change its orbit, as well as turn and roll. [url]
Engineers in the UK are testing some key technology for a propulsion system that could one day take a spaceplane, like the Skylon vehicle, straight into orbit without all the multiple propellant stages required with current throw-away rockets. The Sabre propulsion system, which is part jet engine and part rocket engine, burns hydrogen and oxygen to provide thrust. [url]
Researchers at The Australian National University are working on a plasma thruster that could eventually be used to send satellites to Mars. The plasma thruster could be ready by 2014, and initial missions will attempt to send old satellites into "graveyard" orbits using the thruster. [url]
The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency and NASA are both testing solar sail technology as a form of primary propulsion for spacecraft. The solar sail technology relies on the concept that surfaces exposed to electromagnetic radiation will experience "radiation pressure," which exerts a small pushing force against the surface. Japan's Ikaros 27-square-meter solar sail gets only 0.0002 pounds of force due to radiation pressure from the sun, but over a long period of time, incredibly high speeds could be achieved. [url]

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Filed Under: exploration, jaea, nasa, plasma thrusters, propulsion, rockets, skylon, solar sail, solar system, space

9 Comments

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Nigel Lew (profile), 17 Sep 2012 @ 5:07pm

Warp Drive
I like these posts. Curiously enough I was just trying to wrap my brain around this..

http://news.discovery.com/space/warp-drive-possible-nasa-tests-100yss-120917.html

Nigel
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Rick Crammond (profile), 17 Sep 2012 @ 8:19pm

Propulsion is obsolete and it's time to get over it.
The propulsion technologies noted seem old-fashioned and wimpy, compared to the positive movement of new "Mag-Grav" field technologies...coming soon, at least to the few countries that have recently accepted it.

For a space drive with real balls, check out Keshe Foundation's plans for cheap, safe, space travel based on gravitational positioning...
http://www.keshefoundation.org/en/applications/space/gravitational-technology

Keshe Foundation Intro movie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrN99RELqwo
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- Anonymous Coward, 17 Sep 2012 @ 11:41pm
  
  Re: Propulsion is obsolete and it's time to get over it.
  I'm afraid that I can't believe anything on that page. From the very start it is all kinds of wrong.
  
  HOW GRAVITY IS CREATED
  We have proved through the systems we have developed that have an internal structure similar to the dual core of the Earth, that gravity is created by the interaction of magnetic fields within the different cores of the planet.
  
  Gravity is caused by mass, and the attractive force between two bodies is proportional to their masses. 400+ years of observation and experimentation pretty much proves that fact. That Keshe gravitational technology looks like pseudoscientific rubbish.
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  - Rick Crammond (profile), 18 Sep 2012 @ 12:20am
    
    Re: Re: Propulsion is obsolete and it's time to get over it.
    Re: "the attractive force between two bodies is proportional to their masses. 400+ years of observation and experimentation pretty much proves that fact"
    
    "Pretty much" is nowhere near enough proof for me. Today's science can levitate a live frog in an ordinary, but strong, magnetic field...against the force of gravity. That was also considered "pretty much" impossible by all scientists just a few short years ago.
    
    I agree that the Keshe ideas are hard to believe. So were Nikola Tesla's comments about his electric flying machine that were similar...before being classified. But I can't deny that the principle concepts expounded by Keshe resonate with my gut instinct that says they're correct.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 18 Sep 2012 @ 12:30am
    
    Re: Re: Propulsion is obsolete and it's time to get over it.
    I've read that site a bit further and it's hilarious. This part of the explanation of why magnetic fields affect the motion of celestial bodies:
    
    Planets in the universe do not fill up at every fuel station, they do not stand still and they do not have wings to fly.
    
    It also talks about things which astrophyicists don't event understand.
    
    The reactor contains different matters (matter, antimatter and dark matter)
    
    No-one knows what dark matter is, though there are hypotheses. If Keshe knows otherwise, he might want to let the rest of the scientific community know.
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    - Rick Crammond (profile), 18 Sep 2012 @ 1:12am
      
      Re: Re: Re: Propulsion is obsolete and it's time to get over it.
      Keshe was apparently told by some scientists to make his language more technical and scientific in his research papers. Keshe replies that he writes so that a black bushman from Africa and a white PHD physicist can be at the same table, and both of them will understand the concepts. The scientists immediately left the room.
      
      That pretty much sums up most scientist's responses to Keshe.
      
      Also, Keshe explains he is trained as an engineer, not a physicist. He says he builds what he talks about, instead of talking math.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Sep 2012 @ 12:20am

Mars
Maybe, I'm being na�ve, but shouldn't we have colozized Mars by now: :/
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- Watchit (profile), 18 Sep 2012 @ 1:32am
  
  Re: Mars
  no not now, in 2023 ;)
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Watchit (profile), 18 Sep 2012 @ 1:34am

Scotty we need more power!
Don't forget Warp Drives :D

http://gizmodo.com/5942634/nasa-starts-development-of-real-life-star-trek-warp-drive
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