3 ms·

It works by ionizing the air, so that might lead to issues with producing ozone.

• telchar 9y ago
  Ozone in the high atmosphere is a good thing though - the ozone layer. It's only at ground level that it can act as a health hazard.
  • vanderZwan 9y ago
    Yeah, I should have clarified: I was responding to the "having a lot of applications" remark, which to me implied other places than low earth orbit.
• awalton 9y ago
  ...not at the quantities this thing would make. I'd be more worried about random Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) emissions, but again, too small of a volume to actually matter in any significant way. A couple of VWs are probably worse.
  • vanderZwan 9y ago
    Fair point. Although you don't run VWs in closed spaces, but one might do so with fans (same reason why I hate it when universities or offices put laserprinters in closed rooms - always gives me headaches)
• darkmighty 9y ago
  Definitely. Ozone is a significant irritant (although it also has an "air freshening effect", see air ionizers), to produce significant airflow I believe you'd need very large electrodes, which would produce lots of ozone. The electrodes need to be large because the voltage is limited by air's breakdown voltage, so you can't just pump up the voltage like you can (for the most part) just increase a fan's velocity. For lack of friction/bearings a magnetic bearing fan seems like a much better option. The strength of this technology is the great exhaust velocity, which is great for space applications.
  • vanderZwan 9y ago
    > The strength of this technology is the great exhaust velocity, which is great for space applications. Ah, that makes sense. Given the speed that these satellites are typically travelling at, the exhaust probably needs to go faster than that to work, right?