Collaborate Disseminate
There’s little about building spacecraft that anyone would call simple. But there’s at least one element of designing a vehicle that will operate outside the Earth’s atmosphere that’s fairly easier …read more Continue reading Skimming Satellites: On the Edge of the Atmosphere
What do scanning electron microscopes and satellites have in common? On the face of things, not much, but after seeing [Zachary Tong]’s latest video on liquid metal ion thrusters, we …read more Continue reading Liquid Metal Ion Thrusters Aren’t Easy
Rocket science got a bit more science-fiction-like as RocketStar announces it has successfully demonstrated a new ion drive that incorporates nuclear fusion. It’s not the sort of fusion that powers the Sun, but it does improve thrust by 50%.Continue Re… Continue reading Fusion drive space engine ready for flight
Spacecraft rocket engines come in a variety of forms and use a variety of fuels, but most rely on chemical reactions to blast propellants out of a nozzle, with the …read more Continue reading Ion Thrusters: Not Just For TIE Fighters Anymore
Since NASA’s Mariner spacecraft made the first up-close observations of Mars in 1964, humanity has lobbed a long line of orbiters, landers, and rovers towards the Red Planet. Of course, …read more Continue reading NASA Taps Lockheed to Bring Back a Piece of Mars
As much as we love Star Trek, we have to admit there are some continuity problems. For example, in Spock’s Brain, the alien-of-the-week’s ion drive gave Scotty engineering envy. However, in The Menagerie, the computer identifies a Starfleet …read more