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Ion Engine Propels Probe to Moon
lenin writes "The BBC is reporting that Europe's first moon mission, SMART-1, appears to be a success thus far. It also talks about the low-cost technology being used and the charged xenon (ion) propulsion system. Can TIE-fighters be far off?"
Yes, I do know why ion engines are a good idea. Just leave Star Wars out of this.
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
It also talks about the low-cost technology being used and the charged xenon (ion) propulsion system. Can TIE-fighters be far off?
Yup, that's how technology goes, straight from moon probe to TIE fighters. No intermediate steps necessary. No life support, no radiation shielding, necessary. I can't wait to buy my A-Wing.
(sigh) Then the Emperor has already won.
You are not the customer.
Sorry to disappoint you, but yes.
Damn space cadet!
If we combine this with the space elevator, we can send shit to the moon on 6 AA batteries!!!
10 ?"Hello World" life was simple then
Of course you don't understand - after all, this time it really IS rocket science.
It's pretty simple, really. In the atmosphere, rockets work by pushing against the air, as you might expect. However, when the rocket leaves the atmosphere and enters a vacuum, or what we physicists call an "inertial frame," then your thrust is pushing against this inertial frame, which is kind of like what physicists used to call the "Aether." Aether has gotten a bad name, since Einstein proved that electromagnetic waves don't need to travel in the aether, but this has led to the misconception that aether doesn't even exist. Mach's principle shows that Aether is real, since it is what we need to push against to rotate and accelerate in space.
Banach-Tarski Overdrive
TO THE MOON!!!
...probe Uranus?
For ever action their is an equal and opposite reaction
I'm sorry, but that dosen't explain the curry from my local Chinese restaurant. The reaction is way bigger than the action. Perhaps they should have powered SMART-1 using that.
...we can expose the American moon landing SCAM! ;-)
Hey guys, this stuff isn't just dumbass. A considerable amount of thought and understanding had to go into making it look that retarded.
In short, it's a troll. A real troll at that, not the pseudo trolls we usually see around here.
Not exactly the best troll I've ever seen, but in a way it's nice to see a Slashdoter make the effort to at least try to uphold the old traditions.
KFG
...guide to the galaxy. Obviously this maneuver is very unnatural for all space vehicles, but it looks so cool rich people will surely want to have stuff that does that implemented in their spaceships. Just for showoff, no matter how inefficient and ridiculous that would seem :)
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
The moon will still be there in 15 months.
That's what you think. Ooops, I've said too much already.
"Dark Sith" should that be moderated redundent? Or are there happy-go-lucky-smiley-face-Siths I'm unaware of?
heh.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I hate those self-important A-holes who have those xenon propulsion systems. It seems like every night that I go for a short trip in low earth orbit, at least one schmuck has to fly by with those damned things turned on. How am I supposed to see where I'm going when I'm being blinded by the obnoxious blue glare that they spew? If they're the only ones who can see anything, it's not making things any safer overall.
I swear, I'm going to start flashing these jokers with my laser range finder if they don't get more considerate and stop using those damned xenon units in congested orbits.
Where-ever it is you live I imagine our glorious country is not far from demonstrating quite plainly where it is we've spent the money that was once sent to NASA for the foolish exploration of space (we already discovered there is no oil there). We may not have space-craft built in the last twenty years but what we do have speaks for itself: GPS guided smart-bombs, and a lot of them!
Don't worry, citizen, soon we'll liberate you too!
suddenly I feel very tired
The mathemaician said: It won't be zero value, lets run few more pages of equations. The physicist said: We can safely assume it is orbiting zero value in this equation and thus reduce the next few pages. The engineer said: Screw it, it's zero. Lets build the damn thing.
Insightfull ;-). I'm not shure if the mod read that 100%. It looks more Funny to me but whatever people like...
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