Thrusters The Size Of Pennies

[alex_greene]

Thrusters The Size Of Pennies

“Timothy Graves, manager of electric propulsion and plasma science at Aerospace Corp. in El Segundo, Calif., says the microthruster design stands out among satellite propellant systems for its size and low power consumption.”

“Normally, propulsion systems have significant infrastructure associated with propellant feed lines, valves [and] complex power conditioning systems,” says Graves, who was not involved in the research. “Additionally, the postage-stamp size of this thruster makes it easy to implement in comparison to other, larger propulsion systems.”

 

[Sturn]

Umm, at first glance I read the title wrong.

 

[Mithras]

Me too! Was it the associated word 'size'?

 

[Captain Jonah]

One track minds the lot of you :roll:

 

[alex_greene]

Well, apart from me. We're making such incredible advances in spaceflight technology these days. It's so hard to keep track on what they've come up with. I can only link to what I find.

Like maybe that 15 y.o. girl from India who may have developed the theory behind a working M-drive, for example.

 

[Mithras]

That is cool, I hope these get used. Its frustrating when prototypes are deveoped, but not actually put into production. I'm thinking of the nuclear thermal NERVA rocket here!

Thrusters The Size Of Pennies

“Timothy Graves, manager of electric propulsion and plasma science at Aerospace Corp. in El Segundo, Calif., says the microthruster design stands out among satellite propellant systems for its size and low power consumption.”

“Normally, propulsion systems have significant infrastructure associated with propellant feed lines, valves [and] complex power conditioning systems,” says Graves, who was not involved in the research. “Additionally, the postage-stamp size of this thruster makes it easy to implement in comparison to other, larger propulsion systems.”