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Sound To Power Space Probes
An anonymous reader writes "The old adage that 'no one can hear you scream in space' seems to have its own variant when Los Alamos scientists announced today their latest designs for the 'traveling wave engine', a derivative of the classic, pistonless Stirling device. Because it uses helium as an oscillating gas in a long tube, the design works kind of like a high-pitched loudspeaker at maximum efficiency. Another description combines a refrigerator and whistle to make an engine."
What's new is that it is now better than an internal combustion engine. That means that very soon manufacturers will stop using ICEs, and start using these modified Stirling engines. The only uncertainty after reading all this is power provided per kilogram of engine. That didn't seem to be a problem, however they did not provide data for that. Cheaper to manufacture, cheaper to operate, environmentally sound - WOW!
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