crankyoldman: "Hermann, you don't have to salute, man." [Pacific Rim] (Default)
[personal profile] crankyoldman
I have to admit, the more I learn about rocket science, the more inclined I am to look between the shiny headlines and dig into what they're actually saying. Maybe I'm just a tad pessimistic, because I know what an overblown whale NASA has become, and how many of my poor college friends are suffering under them or contracted to them. Plus, I'm reminded of this PhD comic when it comes to science news. Replace "your grandma" with "my mother" and yeah (bless my mom though, for watching NOVA and telling me that hey that's like a male you! Sorry mom, no genius grants. XD I'm merely clever and lazy; I just find ways around hard work, it's an engineer thing)

Anyway, so today's big NASA thing? Ion engines = zomg faster to Mars!

Ion engines are tricky, tricky things. I happen to be mildly fascinated with them as I almost became a particle physicist (I wanted to see daylight and possible work outside research, so that plan obviously changed) and conceptually they're a trip. In some ways, it's like a one-way particle accelerator--instead of shit going around in a circle, it's being trickled out the back. And a lot of people go "heck yeah, no combustion! this is safe and happy!" but it's kind of a nuclear process that gets you the nice particle stream going. Cause solar panels and electricity aren't going to ionize the gas particles enough to produce much thrust. Bitch needs a lot of power. And if you're trying to actually move anything, you're going to need thrust. I was entertain looking at some forums on this and finding people being all, "hey use electrons!". Electrons are LIGHT and won't move CRAP. This is why electronics work. If they were heavy ass particles, you'd have a devil of a time getting current to work. So yeah.

Also, it's heavy and takes a LOT of power to operate. You need a set of boosters to get it into space, and since that ass is heavy, those are some BIGASS boosters. We've gotten better about reusable boosters since we came up with the Shuttle, but that's still primarily a combustive force. So there's a tradeoff. This is also partly why space stations are important and why I want my darn space elevator already.

HOWEVER, there are xenon-ion engines being used for satellites, because they basically keep going as long as they have a gas supply and a steady power source. Also most satellites have pretty steady velocities needed, which is what the ion system is theoretically good for. And they've been using ion control thrusters since the 60s. And the NSTAR ion engine works great for deep space probes. Thing is, though, they're lightweight vehicles to begin with, and once you add people in to the mix, it gets heavy quick. They used about 85 kg of xenon for 20 months -- with a pretty light deep space probe. Add the space needed to house people and supplies? Heavy.

The efficiency of the system is heartening enough, and the fact that some kind of vehicles have been powered by it is a-ok. And I note that none of the articles admit that this requires some nuclear power to get the electrical oomph needed to produce a good thrust. XD Ah well.

It all basically comes down to that darn E = mc^2 stuff. If we can figure out a way around that, I get my damned warp drive.

tl;dr: Ion engines are yay, until you stick people on there. Further research is required.

(no subject)

Date: 2009-08-03 03:08 am (UTC)
whitemage: (science)
From: [personal profile] whitemage
Okay, see, physical science makes sense when YOU explain it.

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crankyoldman: "Hermann, you don't have to salute, man." [Pacific Rim] (Default)
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