[Slay Mantus]

Apparently they are testing a new Plasma Ion Engine for space exploration
Star Wars Time!!!!

[Neraphym]

Hm, could you get a link to a news article on this, I'd very much like to ready ab00t it.

[darkaao]

I found this artical on it i thought it was pritty cool!!!!!


Ion Engine

[Slay Mantus]

this is extremely important because our current rockets only fire thier rockets when they launch and to make adjustments like 3 times during the flight.
this 1 will be continuous as it takes way less fuel. it might even provide energy for itself not sure though
(i have no idea wat this means my science teacher told me bout it)

This post has been edited by ikbis29: 16 February 2006 - 01:15 AM

[Neraphym]

An Ion Engine simply uses energy to push ions away from itself, creating thrust. It's very energy efficient, but I hear it has slow acceleration and low max velocity.

[Jarik C-Bol]

An Ion Engine simply uses energy to push ions away from itself, creating thrust.  It's very energy efficient, but I hear it has slow acceleration and low max velocity.

actualy, they are wicked fast, it just takes ages to get up to speed. (like, 1/3 of lightspeed potentialy, but like 3 months to get going that fast)

[JohnR49]

This news-byte has more info :

http://www.newscient...le.ns?id=dn8599

[Neraphym]

I wasn't talking about space. Max velocity only applies in atmosphere. Unless of course we talk about things approaching light speed.