New plasma engine, design looks much better than older ones
because it eliminates the grids present in older designs which
means nothing in the way of the ions to crap up. Should be much
more reliable, like decades reliable. For spacecraft BTW.
Here is the link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4527696.stm#ion
Originally posted by BowmannThe thing that is interesting about this design is it can be scaled up
Hmm, it seems you can come close at least.
to produce what for ion engines is considered high thrust. Also the
efficiency is extremely high, the thrust per pound of propellant is
also very high. In a shuttle rocket, the 'specific impulse' rating
is about 450, which is pretty much as high as a chemical rocket
can get. The ion engine can be rated in the thousands, so if an
ion rocket has a specific impulse rating of 4,500, it will produce
ten times the thrust per pound of propellant compared to the shuttle.
This is very important for deep space probes or manned missions.
They give you the most bang for the buck.
The next thing you need is a space borne fusion reactor producing
say 100 megawatts or one gigawatt. Couple that with these new
plasma rockets and the solar system is ours. Radiation from
solar wind would no longer be a problem because you could
get one G of accel which gets you anywhere in the solar system
in less than two weeks. I mean all the way to pluto in two weeks,
and beyond. Interestingly, fusion for space ships is further along than
fusion on the ground, theory wise.