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NASA’s New Vasimr Plasma Engine Could Reach Mars in Less Than 6 Weeks
- Cardinal7167 4y agoThis article is more spun than the thread in my shirt. Absolute repost spam about an otherwise interesting topic.
- system2 4y agoWell, NASA paid $10M this time. Unless they are burning money, they are onto something. I hope so.
- rektide 4y agoVasimr was such a high-sci-fi dream... in like 2002. Still rooting for it but man, it's like an old happy memory to keep returning to.
- fnordpiglet 4y agoA lot of progress recently apparently … they’ve gotten longer firings, smaller,and less input electricity over time. Apparently getting close to flight readiness. Kinda exciting the live in the future.
- idontwantthis 4y agoWikipedia says this Mars trip would require a 200MW power source. That alone sounds way more impressive and difficult than any engine could be on its own. It’s like making an electric golf cart break the sound barrier. Yeah you did something amazing but maybe that mini nuclear reactor you invented along the way is a bigger deal.
- ivanche 4y ago200 milliwatts doesn't sound like much.
- idontwantthis 4y agoHooray
- dron57 4y agoLowercase m - milli. Uppercase M - mega.
- ivanche 4y agoI know :) OP edited their comment afterwards.
- stevep98 4y agoThe smaller nuclear reactors used on submarines and aircraft carriers would be of the appropriate size, but they generate electricity using steam turbines. I don't think that would be workable in space. You'd need massive radiators to radiate away a lot of that heat to recondense the steam. If you're generating that much heat, then you're probably better off using the nuclear reactor to directly heat the propellant. Joe Scott has a new video up about Nuclear propulsion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5UU0GA5GAU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5UU0GA5GAU
- fnordpiglet 4y agoI have over 600 hours logged on Kerbal Space Program and can confidentially say if this works it’s a real game changer.