Ion Engine Breakthrough!

[Halb]

Ion Engine Breakthrough Could Take Us To Mars At A Fraction Of The Fuel

Full ahead Mr Sulu.
http://www.iflscience.com/ion-engine-breakthrough-...

[Eric Mc]

We've already powered a couple of spacecraft with ion drive. It's on the way.

[Halmyre]

Would a small one-man spacecraft with a dual (or twin, as it were) engine arrangement work? Just wondering, like...

[Richyvrlimited]

Halmyre said:

Would a small one-man spacecraft with a dual (or twin, as it were) engine arrangement work? Just wondering, like...

genuine LOL.

Do they make any noise, (when in an atmosphere).

[Eric Mc]

As far as I know, no. It's a bit like turning on a torch.

[glazbagun]

Richyvrlimited said:

Halmyre said:

Would a small one-man spacecraft with a dual (or twin, as it were) engine arrangement work? Just wondering, like...

genuine LOL.

Do they make any noise, (when in an atmosphere).

Love it! A twin ion-engined single seater wouldn't out-drag a Corsa.

This was seven years ago, but to give you an idea of how feeble these things are:

https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12709-next-...

236 milliNewtons pushing a 1000KG vehicle without friction would have an acceleration of 0.000236000 M/S^2

If my beery maths is right, that's 0-60 in ~31hrs48 mins. You'd need a long runway for your rocketpod.

Edited by glazbagun on Thursday 5th November 22:37

[annodomini2]

glazbagun said:

Richyvrlimited said:

Halmyre said:

Would a small one-man spacecraft with a dual (or twin, as it were) engine arrangement work? Just wondering, like...

genuine LOL.

Do they make any noise, (when in an atmosphere).

Love it! A twin ion-engined single seater wouldn't out-drag a Corsa.

This was seven years ago, but to give you an idea of how feeble these things are:

https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12709-next-...

236 milliNewtons pushing a 1000KG vehicle without friction would have an acceleration of 0.000236000 M/S^2

If my beery maths is right, that's 0-60 in ~31hrs48 mins. You'd need a long runway for your rocketpod.

Edited by glazbagun on Thursday 5th November 22:37

Thing is the ION engine will run for 5-10 years constantly without running out of fuel, I doubt the Corsa would do that.

At ~60mph/day delta, over 10 years you'll be doing 220,000mph.

Virtually no drag in space.

[dr_gn]

Halmyre said:

Would a small one-man spacecraft with a dual (or twin, as it were) engine arrangement work? Just wondering, like...

I saw a series of documentaries once, where these types of craft were developed ages ago, and in fact were quite commonplace. They did seem to need a pretty elaborate hanger though...