DailyDirt: Moving Forward... With Cool Propulsion

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Mon, Jan 17th 2011 5:00pm — Michael Ho

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]

Filed Under: lightfoil, railgun, rocket fuel, trinitramid

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Anonymous Coward, 17 Jan 2011 @ 5:56pm

What about the supposed levitation that mercury allegedly creates in a gyroscope?
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- 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.
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  - 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.
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    - The Mighty Buzzard (profile), 17 Jan 2011 @ 6:32pm
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      Which is entirely beside the point since I have no idea where we'd put a gyroscope big enough for even the smallest planet.
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      - Anonymous Coward, 17 Jan 2011 @ 6:41pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re:
        Maybe your post will be voted the funniest.
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        Anonymous Coward, 17 Jan 2011 @ 6:43pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
        :)
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    - Chris in Utah (profile), 18 Jan 2011 @ 5:38am
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      Might want to send that one in to Myth Busters.
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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.
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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
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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
.
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