NASA Ground Tests Ion Engine

herda05 writes "New Scientist reports from a press release by NASA on a successful ground test of the HiPEP (High Power Electric Propulsion) ion engine, which is the first 'major milestone' for Project Prometheus. Also some pictures and more info on the HiPEP engine."

Comments

Now all I need...

[teridon]

is a portable 25-kilowatt reactor. Pluto here I come!

Obligatory TIE Fighter comment

[schnits0r]

I still want my TIE Fighter.

Cool.

[falsification]

I always liked ion engines. Back in the star frontiers, when I was a ranger, my commando team would hide in a freighter's hold. Listening to that steady purr of the ion engine made the days before hitting down the warp pass quickly by. We played jimble-jack, and 3-D chess, sure, but mostly you just sat on your ass on a crate smoking sourweed. It was kind of rough, because one of my comrades was a Vrusk, and the other was a Yazirian. They didn't like one another. Plus, the male and female Dralasites kept humping. It got to smell pretty bad in that hold. Eventually, we unwarped. We sneaked up to a Sathar and pirate base. They thought we were just smugglers, but they wouldn't have, except for that ion engine. Old, but reliable. We lost a lot of men that day, dammit all. And the Vrusk. Had to mercy kill him with a laser pistol. It was worth it, though. Disabled their chemical rocket system. We killed or captured the entire lot of bad guys. There was dead worm everywhere. The vibroblade was whirring that day, I'll tell you. It was beautiful. At that point, the base was about to fall into an event horizon, but with our trusty ion engine freighter, we got out of there, right before a dual star system was sucked into the black hole, which created a supernova.

Those were the days.

Re:Xenon gas?

[Muad'Dave]

Oh great! There goes the price of Pepto-Bismol. (Yes, it contains the metal Bismuth).