Electric Rockets Set To Transform Space Flight

An anonymous reader sends this quote from an article at Txchnologist: "The spectacle of a booster rocket lifting off a launch pad atop a mass of brilliant flames and billowing smoke is an iconic image of the Space Age. Such powerful chemical rockets are needed to break the bonds of Earth's gravity and send spacecraft into orbit. But once a vehicle has progressed beyond low-earth orbit chemical rockets are not necessarily the best way to get around outer space. That's because chemical propulsion systems require such large quantities of fuel to generate high speeds, there is little room for payload. As a result rocket scientists are increasingly turning to electric rockets, which accelerate propellants out the back end using solar-powered electromagnetic fields rather than chemical reactions. The electric rockets use so much less propellant that the entire spacecraft can be much more compact, which enables them to scale down the original launch boosters."

Comments

Re:Do we even have such a long cord?

[decipher_saint]

213 million six foot power strips daisy chained together...

Re:OT: Rocket Scientists Are Not Scientists

[ceoyoyo]

If you're building new drives to experiment with, you're a scientist. If you're following established principles to build a drive then you're an engineer.

The distinction isn't nearly as clear as you imply, and isn't based on your criteria.

I have degrees in oth science and engineering. Normally I do science with a bit of engineering, figuring out how to do new things. Sometimes I do engineering with a smattering of science figuring out how to do those new things out in the field.

Re:Ion Drive isn't new

[tp1024]

The watt count doesn't matter. It's exhaust velocity (more means more energy use, no matter what technology) of the engine and the total amount of energy carried by the reactor (more energy means more mass, means less speed). 0.1-1% of the speed of light should easily be possible, but I haven't done the math to the point of calculating multiple stages, optimizing the energy budget with respect to the trade-off between exhaust velocity and energy consumption and so on and so forth.

Hydrogen-Oxygen fuel has an exhaust velocity of about 4500m/s for a final speed on the order of 20km/s with multiple stages (for any significant payload). Simple ion engines can reach 30,000m/s, but final speeds will be less than expected, as the empty mass of the stages is higher. Something on the order of 100km/s with 2-3 stages should be possible. (Let's say 12,000 years to Alpha Centauri.) More sophisticated engines can reach up to 200,000m/s in exhaust velocity (2000 years to Alpha Centauri), but somewhere the energy limitations will kick in and I don't know whether before or after that point. (That's when the Uranium/Plutonium makes up a very significant part of the deadweight - even if you throw some of it over board in the process.)

Just build some of space ships and a couple of pyramids in a desert to remind people they are on their way.