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Ion-Propulsion Craft Reaches The Moon
Rollie Hawk writes "It ain't warp speed, but it's exciting new technology at work! The European Space Agency put an ion-propelled rocket into lunar orbit today. While not much horsepower is generated, this method of propulsion could be ideal for travel in near-weightless space as it does not require any combustion to occur."
"It ain't warp speed"
:)
But to me, it's a good step forward
This is the sig that says NI (again)
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[conspiracy] On the other hand, if they can't find it... [/conspiracy]
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Warp 0.0001 more like it, Picard would say"E....N.....G....A....G......E"
Isn't the Washington Times the same paper that is owned by the Moonies?
http://www.realjournalism.net/times.htm
That's very cool...I'm sure that it's a lot cheaper to power that sort of craft in comparison to a solid-based rocket fuel (which I hear is absurdly costly).
:D
Now we need to start making TIE fighters (Twin Ion Engine fighters from Star Wars).
Two freaks, no foes. It takes absolutely nothing to make some people angry.
Give me a Bussard Ramjet any day! Well, that and an extremely good handbrake.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Anyone who's anyone knows Sharper Image have been selling these for years.
;)
There's really no end to the crap Sharper Image can add ions to and double the price for. It only stood to reason they'd release spaceships with them too.
You'll find them in their catalogue next to the negative ion vacuum cleaners, negative ion air purifiers, negative ion hair driers, negative ion bikini zone razors, and negative ion pet hair brushes (the scary thing is I only made one of that entire list up).
That one's pretty good, but I think this one says it all.
How ya like dat?
Then could the mystery of the origin of cosmic rays be explained by particles emitted by alien ion-propulsion?
"After hearing the news that the ESA's slow ion-powered probe has entered Moon orbit after a record-long 13 month voyage, NASA has announced that it will launch an even slower probe that propels itself by gliding on a trail of its own mucous."
That's right. What the movie doesn't make clear is that it was sped up by a factor of 10,000, because solar panels that size result in only a trivial amount of thrust.
Understood, but a long time ago in a galaxy far far away, we've had space vehicles running on Twin Ion Engines. Efficient? Hell yeah! The price of that efficiency, though, was the apparent lack of a deflector shield.
Why did I just have a flashback to a scene in Austin Powers involving a steam roller and somebody screaming "Nooooooooooooo"?
No one on earth could do anything about it, but not everyone who goes to the moon is from earth. The Zhti Ti Kofft would probably destroy any U.S. base in no time, or at least conquer it, and say ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US!
The Uncoveror: It's the real news.
That's right. What the movie doesn't make clear is that it was sped up by a factor of 10,000, because solar panels that size result in only a trivial amount of thrust.
No, the TIE fighters had a large bank of 48 car batteries which were kept topped up by the solar cells. Each TIE fighter had to charged up from the mains at least once every 48 hours, otherwise the battery would run flat, and you'd be stuck in space. In that case, the only way to start the engines was to plug an R2D2 unit into the cigarette lighter socket.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
Isn't this how TIE Fighers from Star Wars worked? Their wings were solar panels...
"Luke, you may get away today, but in 12,000 years my total thrust will eventually exceed yours, and you'll be MINE!" -- Darth "Quickie" Vader
Table-ized A.I.
Sure, you can build your luxury hotel, but you're never going to be able to keep out the riff-raff.
===== Murphy's Law is recursive. =====
True.
And technically our pulse generators could power a city, for a very very short period of time.
Imagine ion propulsion in our cars! Just gimme some months to reach those 55 mph...
cpghost at Cordula's Web.