Note: this topic is from 02/26/2010. VASIMR propulsion topic. Thanks NormsRevenge.
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Posted on 02/26/2010 2:39:44 PM PST by NormsRevenge
Now, there's your diversity right there.
how about obama and his wife
The engine has been bench tested already. It’s going aboard ISS this year for it’s first test in space.
Re: your comment about having to wait a year to return there was an article last year with a plan to use cargo ships to move the necessary supplies to Mars before the Astronauts got there. The cargo ships would use a version of VASIMR also but the transit time would be much longer. Speed wouldn’t be a consideration.
I believe one of our former astronauts has proposed using a series of ships left in orbits that cross paths of both earth and mars to haul cargo.
Not exactly overnight express but an interesting idea none the less.
Fascinating article.
Magnetic confinement and direction, no doubt. No physical contact.
Will that look anything like Amtrak's brave new, commercial, world of rail transport?
using his high-tech VASIMR rocket, .. The Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma RocketThanks hennie pennie.
Chang-Diaz was born in San José, Costa Rica to a father of Chinese descent and a Spanish Costa Rican mother, both Costa Rican-born.[3] He studied at La Salle School, then moved to the United States to finish his high school education. He earned a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Connecticut (where he joined the federal TRIO Student Support Services program) in 1973, and a Sc.D. degree in applied plasma physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1977. For his graduate research at MIT, Chang-Diaz worked in the field of fusion technology and plasma-based rocket propulsion.[1]
[edit] NASA career
Chang-Diaz was selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in 1980 and first flew aboard STS-61-C in 1986. Subsequent missions included STS-34 (1989), STS-46 (1992), STS-60 (1994), STS-75 (1996), STS-91 (1998), and STS-111 (2002). During STS-111, he performed three EVAs with Philippe Perrin as part of the construction of the International Space Station. He was also director of the Advanced Space Propulsion Laboratory at the Johnson Space Center from 1993 to 2005. Chang-Diaz retired from NASA in 2005.
“Maybe it’s just me but it looks like the guy might be there for some other reason than just his name” /s/
New paper claims that the EM Drive doesn’t defy Newton’s 3rd law after all
Science Alert | June 16, 2016 | Fiona MacDonald
Posted on 06/18/2016 6:21:05 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/3441620/posts
Note: this topic is from 02/26/2010. VASIMR propulsion topic. Thanks NormsRevenge.
they would have to wait for a year for the earth and Mars to be close enough for the return trip.
Cargo will be sent way before the crews.
That feature was a safety fallback in case a free return trajectory was needed, which it was on Apollo 13. The S-IVB had just enough thrust to attain escape velocity. It might have been able to push a little more (not much, since the S-IVB had to have enough fuel to maneuver either into heliocentric orbit or hit the moon, as was done for Apollo 13-17) but then it would lose the free return and also require more fuel in the SPS to brake into lunar orbit. Everything was pretty well balanced on those missions, just enough velocity to escape the Earth’s gravitational well but not exceed the free return slingshot.
It is hotter than the surface of the sun, but it gets a little tricky with kinetic temperature of low-density plasma. Melting of solid objects with a lot of mass really doesn’t happen, but you can quench the plasma, which is bad news in things like fusion reactors. If you have a lot of really high temperature plasma, like the surface of the sun, things vaporize pretty quickly. But the quantities and density of plasmas used in devices like reactors and rocket engines, is pretty low, but I’m not a plasma physicist so that could be incorrect.
I always figured that "Ghost Ships" happened when someone decided to pull one practical joke too many.
It is sort of like a sign I read about once, "Yung Fat, Kosher Butcher".
It is as American as Apple Pie.
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