Spacecraft Propulsion Developments

[AnimeFan188]

Sunlight and Graphene Could One Day Power a Spaceship:

"Graphene, already a plenty weird wondermaterial, has an unexpected new property
that could one day play a role in space exploration: When hit with light, it
propels forward. Huh!

Scientists accidentally stumbled across this discovery when studying graphene
sponges, crumpled up versions of the single-atom thick sheets of carbon. As the
team used a laser beam to cut the graphene sponge, the beam itself seemed to inch
the sponge forward. So they set up some controlled experiments, which New
Scientist describes below:"

See:

http://gizmodo.com/sunlight-and-grap...hip-1707535183

[Tornado The Dragon]

Very interesting. Sounds promising for inter-planetary exploration. Maybe even inner-solar system colonization.

[AnimeFan188]

VASIMR Rocket Could Send Humans To Mars In Just 39 Days:

"A new type of rocket that could send humans to Mars in less than six weeks
instead of six months or longer may be one step closer to reality.

NASA has selected Texas-based Ad Astra Rocket Company for a round of funding to
help develop the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket, or VASIMR. The
new rocket uses plasma and magnets, not to lift spacecraft into orbit but to propel
them further and faster once they've escaped the planet's atmosphere."

See:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/0...n_7009118.html

[AnimeFan188]

New Test Suggests NASA's "Impossible" EM Drive Will Work In
Space:

"Last year, NASA’s advanced propulsion research wing made headlines by
announcing the successful test of a physics-defying electromagnetic drive, or EM
drive. Now, this futuristic engine, which could in theory propel objects to
near-relativistic speeds, has been shown to work inside a space-like vacuum.

NASA Eagleworks made the announcement quite unassumingly via
NASASpaceFlight.com. There’s also a major discussion going on about the engine
and the physics that drives it at the site’s forum."

See:

http://io9.com/new-test-suggests-nas...ork-1701188933

[Darthtabby]

At the risk of being a killjoy, it's a stretch to say that NASA validated that EM drive.

[AnimeFan188]

Boeing's fusion-fission hybrid propulsion patent is weak compared to the
detailed NASA NIAC Pulsed Fission-Fusion design:

"Boeing claims energy-efficient thrust can be produced by firing lasers at
deuterium and tritium and then having the neutrons activate uranium 238 to
generate more heat.

* Hot gases produced by the laser induced fusion are pushed out of a nozzle
at the back of the engine, creating thrust.

* a neutrons hit a shell of uranium 238 which causes fission and generates
lots of heat.

* a heat exchanger uses the heat from the fission reaction to drive a turbine
that generates the electricity that powers the lasers.

They have different configurations
* one configuration generates ISP of about 2000 to 5000 seconds
* another configuration has an ISP of about 5000 to 25000 seconds
* another configuration an ISP of about 100,000 to 250,000.

I am not sure where there is enough innovation in the Boeing concepts for a
patent. There have been several prior proposed fusion-fission hybrid propulsion
systems.

I look at some other work and focus on the NIAC NASA Pulsed Fission-Fusion
design. There is a lot more detailed modeling and work towards experimentation
in the NASA Pulsed Fission-fusion design."

See:

http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/07/boe...on-hybrid.html

[AnimeFan188]

EMdrive paper and what original inventor Roger Shawyer believes is
happening:

"The keys to EMDrive experiments are prove the propulsion is real and will work in
space. Find a way with theory or experiment to scale up the effect.

If it is real and the effect can be scaled up then at the very least space travel is
transformed.

Here is information from a Shawyer paper, his website FAQ and his videos. Roger
Shawyer is the original inventor of the EMdrive.

* Not Reactionless, but propellentless
* Shawyer background was with UK Army research and then in the space industry
* Main players in UK, China and the USA are pursuing EMDrive research
* At least three other countries (that Shawyer knows about) have serious
programs running and university departments and private individuals"

See:

http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/08/emd...-original.html

[AnimeFan188]

NASA’s Big Plans For A Gigantic, Insanely Fast Spaceship:

"A team of NASA engineers have proposed a spaceship with 12 mile long electric
sails that could reach ludicrous speeds"

See:

http://www.vocativ.com/video/tech/sp...ast-spaceship/

&

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/heliopau...t-system-herts

&

http://spaceref.com/missions-and-pro...+it+Happens%29

[SineMora]

Dear NASA, don't write off something as impossible unless you've done it and failed at least three tests. Remember the Apollo 13 which is supposed to fail? What happened? It became the manual for everything your astronauts have to do, which became the turning point from "anything possible" to "anything whatsoever" it'll work. Give EMDrive a chance.

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by AnimeFan188

NASA’s Big Plans For A Gigantic, Insanely Fast Spaceship:

"A team of NASA engineers have proposed a spaceship with 12 mile long electric
sails that could reach ludicrous speeds"

See:

http://www.vocativ.com/video/tech/sp...ast-spaceship/

&

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/heliopau...t-system-herts

&

http://spaceref.com/missions-and-pro...+it+Happens%29

solar sails isn't a new idea.

hmm i don't see any plaid

[Ithekro]

You won't see plaid until they get her up to speed.

[AnimeFan188]

New Ion Drive achieves 14,600 ISP which is 50% better
than NASAs best:

"University of Sydney doctoral candidate in Physics, Paddy Neumann,
has developed a new kind of ion space drive that has 153% more fuel
efficiency than the previous record ion drive built by NASA.

The current record, held by NASA’s HiPEP system, allows 9600 (+/-
200) seconds of specific impulse. However, results recorded by the
Neumann Drive have been as high as 14,690 (+/- 2000), with even
conservative results performing well above NASA’s best. That suggests
the drive is using fuel far more efficiently, allowing for it to operate for
longer. Furthermore NASA’s HiPEP runs on Xenon gas, while the
Neumann Drive can be powered on a number of different metals, the
most efficient tested so far being magnesium."

See:

http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/09/new...isp-which.html

[AnimeFan188]

Laser produced blackhole interstellar drive:

"PBS space time reviews interstellar travel options.

They reviewed

* the Orion pulsed nuclear drive.

* Nuclear fusion drives

* antimatter (pion drives)

* laser light sails

* blackhole drive (schwarzschild kugelblitz)

Blackhole made by light.
The sweet spot is 600 billion kg in the size of a proton.
It would radiate 160 petawatts. It would evaporate in 3.5 years.
The lasers that create must be more powerful.
It would accelerate to 10% of lightspeed in 20 days."

See:

http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/10/las...erstellar.html

[AnimeFan188]

In a new round of testing, NASA confirms yet again that the
'impossible' EMdrive thruster works:

"Engineer Roger Shawyer’s controversial EM Drive thruster jets back
into relevancy this week, as a team of researchers at NASA’s
Eagleworks Laboratories recently completed yet another round of
testing on the seemingly impossible tech. Though no official
peer-reviewed lab paper has been published yet, and NASA institutes
strict press release restrictions on the Eagleworks lab these days,
engineer Paul March took to the NASA Spaceflight forum to explain the
group’s findings. In essence, by utilizing an improved experimental
procedure, the team managed to mitigate some of the errors from
prior tests — yet still found signals of unexplained thrust.

Isaac Newton should be sweating."

See:

https://beta.finance.yahoo.com/news/...230112770.html

[DerGilga]

"Isaac Newton should be sweating."

No he shouldn't. To explain something, Newton's laws boil down to the conservation of momentum. If you would create a ranking order of laws in physics, it would be on place 1.5, right after the conservation of energy. In 4d coordinates, (ct,x,y,z), they actually form one law. Something breaking that would be the equal to a perpetuum mobile regarding energy.

The laws of conservation are the most fundamental thing in physics.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_law

[AnimeFan188]

How a New Engine Could Revolutionize Air and
Space Travel:

"Beyond their first possible use in drones, team member John
Bergmans—a consulting mechanical engineer in the NewSpace
industry—sees the RTR turborocket as the next step in the development
of reusable rockets."

See:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/flig...-space-travel/

[AnimeFan188]

Photonic Laser Propulsion to send a 100 kg vehicle to
Mars in 3 days and to get to wafercraft to 30% of the
speed of light by 2035:

"Philip Lubin describes his appraoch to achieving laser driving
spacecraft propulsion in the near term

100kg robotic craft could be sent to Mars in 3 days
1kg could go overnight to Mars
50-100 GW could send a wafercraft to 30% of the speed of light and i would involve 10 minutes

A system that is about 100 times the mass of the space station would
be able to launch such missions to Mars or interstellar wafercraft.

So fully reusable Spacex rockets would be able to affordably launch
such a system into space in the 2020s."

See:

http://nextbigfuture.com/2016/02/pho...-send-100.html

[AnimeFan188]

Russia Thinks It Can Use Nukes to Fly to Mars in 45 Days—If
It Can Find the Rubles:

"The Russians think they can do better. Last week, their national nuclear
corporation Rosatom announced it is building a nuclear engine that will
reach Mars in a month and a half—with fuel to burn for the trip home.
Russia might not achieve its goal of launching a prototype by 2025. But
that has more to do with the country’s financial situation (not great) than
the technical challenges of a nuclear engine."

See:

http://www.wired.com/2016/03/russia-...n-find-rubles/

[Ithekro]

I think these design needs a better definition or at least clarification as to what they intend to do.

I'm hoping they aren't talking about bringing back the old "Orion" style nuclear engine design, the one that used bombs to push the payload.

This might work better, but again it is old tech that didn't go anywhere due to a lack of a project: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_thermal_rocket

Something better would be warranted, but antimatter difficult and fusion is still iffy.

Warp drive (any form of FTL drive really) would be ideal, as a quick jump to Mars could be done in minutes rather than months or years. Even outer planets are only hours away.

[AnimeFan188]

NASA is in the process of getting another peer reviewed
EMDrive paper published:

"Paul March indicated on the NASA Spaceflight forum that NASA
Eagleworks is getting another EMDrive paper through peer review.

Paul March also endorsed the technical information and insights of
forum member Rodal on the topic of EMdrive. Rodal indicates the
differences in dielectric materials and other nuances of interpreting the
known results.

A radio frequency (RF) resonant cavity thruster is a proposed new type
of electromagnetic thruster. Unlike conventional electromagnetic
thrusters, a resonant cavity thruster would use no reaction mass, and
emit no directional radiation."

See:

http://nextbigfuture.com/2016/03/nas...g-another.html