Air-breathing electric thruster!

[Underseer]

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/S...rst_firing_of_air-breathing_electric_thruster

I have absolutely no idea if this thing is practical, but even if it isn't the tech is fascinating. If it works, then this will be a boon for anyone who wants to run a low-orbit satellite.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Sort of like the Bussard ramjet--but without the showstopper problem that has.

 

[Underseer]

Sort of like the Bussard ramjet--but without the showstopper problem that has.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this solving a very different problem? I doubt this thing would produce a very high thrust-to-weight ratio, but if it allows low-Earth orbit satellites to stay up longer without making them a lot more expensive, then more power to them.

 

[Malintent]

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/S...rst_firing_of_air-breathing_electric_thruster

I have absolutely no idea if this thing is practical, but even if it isn't the tech is fascinating. If it works, then this will be a boon for anyone who wants to run a low-orbit satellite.

View attachment 14861

I was going to make one of those for a science fair experiment in the late 70's. Ion drive has been around for decades. I went with Thermoelectrics instead, as the voltage required was higher than my father felt comfortable letting me "play with".

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Sort of like the Bussard ramjet--but without the showstopper problem that has.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this solving a very different problem? I doubt this thing would produce a very high thrust-to-weight ratio, but if it allows low-Earth orbit satellites to stay up longer without making them a lot more expensive, then more power to them.

The purpose is of course very different.

However, the basic idea of the Bussard ramjet was to gather what was around you in space as you go to use as the fuel for your rocket. The original idea is horribly flawed and has a theoretical limit of about .12c, in practice it wouldn't even get near this.

This is gathering what's in space near you to use as rocket exhaust.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/S...rst_firing_of_air-breathing_electric_thruster

I have absolutely no idea if this thing is practical, but even if it isn't the tech is fascinating. If it works, then this will be a boon for anyone who wants to run a low-orbit satellite.

View attachment 14861

I was going to make one of those for a science fair experiment in the late 70's. Ion drive has been around for decades. I went with Thermoelectrics instead, as the voltage required was higher than my father felt comfortable letting me "play with".

What counts is the power available. I've been hit with multiple 100kv shocks, I'm still here.

The bigger problem I see is that ion drives only work in vacuum.

(Note, however, that there's an interesting gadget you can build that's sort of like an ion drive but works only in atmosphere. You build a very light structure that has a large IIRC negative voltage on top and a large positive voltage on the bottom. The power comes in through flexible wires. Done right the device can lift itself against Earth's gravity.

More than once I've seen it presented as proof of a reactionless drive. It's not, though--it only works in atmosphere, the reaction mass is the atmosphere itself. Like a helicopter it holds itself up by pushing air down--it just does it with an electric field rather than any moving parts.

 

[Malintent]

Way back, the setup I was looking at was the engine suspended by its own electric conduit, with the thrust direction perpendicular (horizontal). Pulsing power down the line would get it to swing like a pendulum... theoretically.