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]
  • Hide this

    Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

    Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

    While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

    –The Techdirt Team

    Filed Under: lightfoil, railgun, rocket fuel, trinitramid


    Reader Comments

    Subscribe: RSS

    View by: Time | Thread


    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 17 Jan 2011 @ 5:56pm

      What about the supposed levitation that mercury allegedly creates in a gyroscope?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        Michael Ho (profile), 17 Jan 2011 @ 6:19pm

        Re:

        Hmm. I quick google search suggests such a thing is either pure nonsense or some kind of diamagnetic effect similar to "levitating superconductors"....

        Either way, it doesn't seem like there's anything "magical" about mercury.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Anonymous Coward, 17 Jan 2011 @ 6:21pm

          Re: Re:

          Well, I seen something about it on the history channel on one of those UFO programs, that placing mercury in some sort of a magnetic (?) gyroscope and spinning the gyroscope creates some sort of lift and a bright light. Not sure if it's true though.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 17 Jan 2011 @ 8:12pm

      the age of sail

      The idea of solar sailing has been around for years. A large solar sail (acres and acres of shiny film) provides a small, steady thrust without the need to carry fuel. It's no good for getting off the ground, but it's terrific for interplanetary travel (and yes, it can be used to travel toward the sun, e.g. to Venus). Actual experiments began only last year.

      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.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      spiderwebby (profile), 18 Jan 2011 @ 1:09am

      linear motor != rail gun

      sorry guys, they're not firing their planes off the deck at Mach 5 quite yet

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Hephaestus (profile), 18 Jan 2011 @ 7:16am

      You forgot a cool one ....

      This guy seems to have come up with a reactionless drive. A Blueprint for a Quantum Propulsion Machine
      .

      link to this | view in chronology ]


    Follow Techdirt
    Essential Reading
    Techdirt Deals
    Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
    Techdirt Insider Discord

    The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

    Loading...
    Recent Stories

    This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
    Close

    Email This

    This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.