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Australians claim ion space engine breakthrough
The new engine is over ten times more fuel efficient than the one used on SMART-1. “Using a similar amount of propellant as SMART-1, with the right power supply, a future spacecraft using our new engine design wouldn’t just reach the Moon, it would be able to leave the Solar System entirely,â€
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Juu nin to iro
English doesn't borrow from other languages. It follows them down dark alleys, knocks them over, and goes through their pockets for loose grammar. -
Now they just need to develop a hull strong enough to keep the ship from tearing apart.“Inside every sane person there’s a madman struggling to get outâ€
–The Light Fantastic, Terry Pratchett -
You misunderstand the ion drive concept. It provides low thrust for many thousands of consecutive hours of operation vs. a chemical rockets very high thrust for only a few minutes. Ion drives can run almost indefinitely.
Their advantage is that this low acceleration over a long period of time provides a much higher specific impulse (SI) than chemical rockets, which means they're much more efficient and can reach extremely high speeds on very small amounts of fuel.
It also means that the airframe doesn't need to withstand as much stress.
The US Deep Space 1 design covered many hundreds of millions of miles on only 181 lbs (82 kg) of fuel (xenon gas). If it had used chemical rockets it would have needed over 900 lbs (408 kg) of fuel.
Dr. MordridLast edited by Dr Mordrid; 23 January 2006, 01:25.Dr. Mordrid
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An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications.
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What timescales are we talking here?With an adequate supply of electrical power, a small cluster of larger, high power versions of the new engine design would provide enough thrust to propel a crewed spacecraft to Mars and back.FT.Comment
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Depends on what kind of electric drive you're talking about.
Chemical rockets would result in a one way trip time of a year or so.
Conventional ion drives could cut that by a third.
VASIMR plasma engines, which would require a small nuclear reactor, could take it down to a few weeks.
In either case the mission profile would result in acceleration for 1/2 the flight then turning the ship around and decelerating for the other 1/2. Otherwise it's a one way ticket to Prioxima Centauri
Dr. MordridLast edited by Dr Mordrid; 23 January 2006, 02:08.Dr. Mordrid
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An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications.
I carry a gun because I can't throw a rock 1,250 fpsComment
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