DailyDirt: Moving Forward... With Cool Propulsion
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
There are a lot of different ways to get from point A to point B these days. But a bunch of the coolest concepts were conceived decades ago and are only recently beginning to be developed into practical forms of transportation. Ion thrusters are being used more and more in spacecrafts now. Biofuels are actually available for somewhat ordinary cars on the road. However, there are still a few pretty exotic means of thrust that haven't quite come into common use. Here are some quick examples.Trinitramid is a molecule that might boost rocket fuel performance. But... "It remains to be seen how stable the molecule is in a solid form." [url] An optical analog of aerodynamic lift produces a force on a "wing" placed in a uniform stream of light. This lightfoil isn't going to move people anytime soon, but it could be useful for designing solar sails on satellites someday. [url] The US Navy has successfully launched a plane using a railgun. Jumping from a steam-powered catapult to a railgun sounds like a pretty huge advance.... [url]
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Filed Under: lightfoil, railgun, rocket fuel, trinitramid
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Either way, it doesn't seem like there's anything "magical" about mercury.
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the age of sail
The article in question is behind a paywall, but the abstract suggests that this method is less efficient than a simple reflective surface, but easier to arrange. So it would be useful for moving or driving micro- or nano-scale objects (especially in big groups), but not very important for solar sailing.
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linear motor != rail gun
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You forgot a cool one ....
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