Ion Drive Restarted |
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Ion Drive Restarted |
 Aug 27 2005, 12:44 PM
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#1
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 Junior Member  Group: Members Posts: 48 Joined: 11-August 05 Member No.: 463  |
After 5-month hiatus
*...the ion drive has been "nominally" restarted. QUOTE The EP power is being set to 1325W due to the Sun distance seasonal effect. QUOTE The EP operations are planned to last until mid September assuming simulator behaviour. The second half of September has been reserved for possible special operations in case the engine does not behave as expected. Also lists future activities and gives a rundown on status. All is well, it seems. Includes photo of the ion drive and its "exhaust." |
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Aug 27 2005, 12:52 PM
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#2
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 Member Group: Members Posts: 362 Joined: 12-June 05 From: Kiama, Australia Member No.: 409 |
QUOTE (Palomar @ Aug 27 2005, 11:44 PM) It was described once in an article the I read somewhere as being equal to a "mouse's fart" in thrust, does anyone know how they keep the mouse alive and farting for so long? |
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Aug 27 2005, 01:01 PM
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#3
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 Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2488 Joined: 17-April 05 From: Glasgow, Scotland, UK Member No.: 239 |
QUOTE (abalone @ Aug 27 2005, 01:52 PM) It was described once in an article the I read somewhere as being equal to a "mouses fart" in power, does anyone know how they keep the mouse alive and farting for so long?  Is that a PS/2 mouse or a USB one? -------------------- Remember: Time Flies like the wind - but Fruit Flies like bananas!
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Aug 27 2005, 01:05 PM
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#4
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Member Group: Members Posts: 362 Joined: 12-June 05 From: Kiama, Australia Member No.: 409 |
QUOTE (Bob Shaw @ Aug 28 2005, 12:01 AM) Is that a PS/2 mouse or a USB one? Do they have a different thrust to mass ratio? I think it would have to be cordless |
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Aug 27 2005, 05:00 PM
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#5
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Solar System Cartographer Group: Members Posts: 10146 Joined: 5-April 05 From: Canada Member No.: 227 |
They feed it lentils?
Phil -------------------- ... because the Solar System ain't gonna map itself.
Also to be found posting similar content on https://mastodon.social/@PhilStooke NOTE: everything created by me which I post on UMSF is considered to be in the public domain (NOT CC, public domain) |
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Jan 16 2006, 05:49 PM
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#6
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 Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2454 Joined: 8-July 05 From: NGC 5907 Member No.: 430 |
The European Space Agency and the Australian National University have successfully tested a new design of spacecraft ion engine that dramatically improves performance over present thrusters and marks a major step forward in space propulsion capability.
http://www.physorg.com/news9786.html The new engine is over ten times more fuel efficient than the one used on SMART-1. "Using a similar amount of propellant as SMART-1, with the right power supply, a future spacecraft using our new engine design wouldn't just reach the Moon, it would be able to leave the Solar System entirely," says Dr Roger Walker of ESA's Advanced Concepts Team, Research Fellow in Advanced Propulsion and Technical Manager of the project. -------------------- "After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined,
and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance. I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard, and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft." - Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853 |
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Jan 16 2006, 05:55 PM
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#7
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 Member Group: Members Posts: 648 Joined: 9-May 05 From: Subotica Member No.: 384 |
Amazing!!! Well done!!!
 QUOTE The test model achieved voltage differences as high as 30kV and produced an ion exhaust plume that travelled at 210,000 m/s, over four times faster than state-of-the-art ion engine designs achieve.
This makes it four times more fuel efficient, and also enables an engine design which is many times more compact than present thrusters, allowing the design to be scaled up in size to operate at high power and thrust. Due to the very high acceleration, the ion exhaust plume was very narrow, diverging by only 3 degrees, which is five times narrower than present systems. This reduces the fuel needed to correct the orientation of spacecraft from small uncertainties in the thrust direction. -------------------- The scientist does not study nature because it is useful; he studies it because he delights in it, and he delights in it because it is beautiful.
Jules H. Poincare My "Astrophotos" gallery on flickr... |
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Lo-Fi Version | Time is now: 19th April 2024 - 09:33 PM |
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