Slashdot Mirror
NASA Contracting Development of New Ion/Nuclear Engines (nasaspaceflight.com)
schwit1 writes: NASA has awarded three different companies contracts to develop advanced ion and nuclear propulsion systems for future interplanetary missions, both manned and unmanned. These are development contacts, all below $10 million. However, they all appeared structured like NASA's cargo and crew contracts for ISS, where the contractor does all of the development and design, with NASA only supplying some support and periodic payments when the contractor achieves agreed-upon milestones. Because of this, the contractors will own the engines they develop, and will be able to sell them to other customers after development, thereby increasing the competition and innovation in the field.
They're still detecting small amounts of thrust, but haven't yet been able to rule out measurement error.
NASA's Eagleworks Laboratory keeps finding that the thing produces thrust, but nobody has any idea why.
http://www.biztekmojo.com/001550/nasas-new-tests-confirm-impossible-em-drive-thruster-can-really-work
A bunch of nations pitched in on the ITER fusion reactor. It's already 300% over budget and won't be fully operational until at least 2027. Global cooperator does not necessarily make projects better or easier.
NASA should sponsor a study into harnessing measurement error as a means of propulsion. I always keep hearing everybody talking about it.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
To be clear, it's not NASA scientists, it's private researchers who have rented space at NASA Eagleworks.
-- Let us endeavor so to live that when we pass even the undertaker shall be sorry. -- M. Twain
VASIMR has been ready to go to a full-scale trial on ISS for a while now. Then the ISS won't be so dependent upon Progress supply missions to give it orbital boosts. This thing will be powerful enough that they have to have batteries in it because the ISS solar panels aren't powerful enough to run it at full power.
But I'd be happier if I saw a date when it would actually get launched for installation on ISS. It looks like they will still be building the first engines through summer 2016. After that it's not clear if the tests are meant to be done on ground. They're also talking about having it run for 100 continuous hours in the third year of the contract, which is more than what ISS needs, so maybe they'll send one up to ISS in 2017 or 2018?
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }