Powering the Future: Soup-Can Spacecraft and Postage-Stamp Engines

space.com ^ | 08/08/01 | Robert Roy Britt

[KevinDavis]

Inside a sprawling, crowded building at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a small window to the future of space exploration. Busting out of one end of the building, a vacuum chamber the size of a motor home houses an engine that has been running for nearly three years.

It is months beyond its life expectancy. Its power source is unlimited. Its fuel is plucked from the air we breathe. And it is 10 times more efficient than a chemically powered engine.

[KevinDavis]

An oldie but goodie......

[KevinDavis]

[Cyclops08]

I was born way too soon. I want to fly an Ion powered craft to Mars.

[solitas]

The engine itself makes no sound. It is a gentle engine, its thrust equivalent to the force exerted to lift a sheet of paper. But it runs, and it runs, and it runs. And since there is no atmosphere in space to cause friction, a spacecraft powered by an ion engine gradually moves faster and faster. Its ultimate speed depends in part on how long the engine can last.

AND how large a mass it is accelerating. These articles never get specific-enough with facts like peak thrust and engine mass (two of the most-basic: even disregarding power supply mass and available fuel mass, as well as vehicle mass, how long would it take for one of these things to 'get out of its own way' (i.e. reach some kind of usable speed?).

Yes, it's interesting. Yes, it's doing something. But is it doing enough of something to be useful?

It is monitored and controlled by a dinosaur of a computer, a Macintosh Quadra 650.

Hey - watch it fella... Mac ping! :)

[Grut]

...controlled by a dinosaur of a computer, a Macintosh Quadra 650.

Surely not a dinosaur. A monotreme*, maybe, but not a dinosaur.

*I.E., Echidna, Platypus; a living example of a dead-end line.

[tet68]

Well, it sounds good, but what happens at the end of the journey? Mid course corrections, planetary/lunar insertions?

[wizr]

You, too, can have one, someday, at a cost of billions. It will be given to a conglomorate with distribution rights.

Our taxes pay for this development, but we, as consumers, pay for it again later, one minor stage at a time.

sarcasm/off

[SunkenCiv]

Soup can? What happens if the string breaks?

[P.O.E.]

An oldie but goodie

Mmmm, mmmm, good?

[TheLion]

"The fuel is gas that occurs naturally in the atmosphere, called xenon," Brophy explains. "It's an inert gas"

I'm missing something here. Do they take the gas with them in the spaceship?

[edwin hubble]

" And it is 10 times more efficient than a chemically powered engine."

Very efficient, but a small thrust.
0.092kg = about 3 oz. of thrust.

Because of the very small mass of fuel and engine, the craft gets to 10,000 mph after about 20 months.

[Renegade]

This is a great concept . I will keep an "eye on " it !

[wingsof liberty]

I am with you, Kevin. I wish I had been born 3-500 years in the future when travel throughout the solar system will be routine, Mars will be in the process of being terraformed, and sending probes to the nearest stars will be commonplace. I envy those future pioneers

[Colorado Doug]

You, too, can have one, someday, at a cost of billions. It will be given to a conglomorate with distribution rights. Our taxes pay for this development, but we, as consumers, pay for it again later, one minor stage at a time.

Naw. If Hillary gets in, she will just give it to China

[Colorado Doug]

Because of the very small mass of fuel and engine, the craft gets to 10,000 mph after about 20 months.

Well, that's better than my old '68, 427 Camaro would do.

[solitas]

Well, that's better than my old '68, 427 Camaro would do.

Hey, your Camaro can do 0-60 in 2.75 seconds - if the cliff is at least 121 feet high. :)

[Colorado Doug]

Hey, your Camaro can do 0-60 in 2.75 seconds - if the cliff is at least 121 feet high. :)

Its 0-60 time was not far off that mark. It was the top speed of 10,000 that it would have had a problem with ;-)