drive systems

[jtkirk1701]

How many drive systems to we have for flying in space?<br />rockets ion...? what?

 

[vogon13]

Voltones have the Para-grav technology. . . .<br /><br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>

 

[vogon13]

Ooops, sorry, not in Free Space anymore.<br /><br />How about solar sails?<br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>

 

[vogon13]

Vasimir is attracting much attention, and no one really knows if it will work. <br /><br /> (charged particle beam reattachment might mess it up)<br /><br />(if the craft builds up a large voltage it might suffer from induced cosmic ray bombardment too,)<br /><br />{I just thought of that one myself}<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>

 

[tap_sa]

Have you heard of Orion? It's really cool. Nuke blasts push blast shield on damper rods. Thousands of tons to orbit from Jackass Flats in a single launch. Brilliant! Literally!

 

[vogon13]

Yeah, some poster here at SDC really has a hard on for Orion . . . .<br /><br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>

 

[no_way]

from the proposed theorethically workable ones theres also mass drivers and magnetic tethers.

 

[jtkirk1701]

we have solid fuel rockets, we have liqiud fuel rockets,we are working on nuclear ion drive engines. we have the sling shot effect??? if you had a vessel that you wanted to have many redunances. that was capable of going to the moon and back but not landing on earth or the moon just makes deliveries. you would want 2 drive systems in case one failed? what 2 drive systems would you use. and would they both be fueled from the same source?

 

[vogon13]

Station keepinmg thrusters have been used a few times to complete the GEO circularization process.<br /><br />I don't know if any GEO satellite with ion propulsion station keeping has done that . . . <br /><br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>

 

[baktothemoon]

Well, no one has yet mentioned NTR's or gas core reactors so I'll bring those up. Those are the kind of rockets we should put on for lunar missions. We could get two to three more times thrust with them than a standard chemical rocket engine. And the technology is very practical, we have already built and tested NTR's and they work extremely well. We were about to do an in flight test when Nixon cut the head off of the program. Too bad, they worked well and would be perfect for planetary exploration. It wouldn't be that hard to resurrect that project, we should, if we have good technology that works than why not make use of it?<br /><br />"Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." John F. Kennedy

 

[barrykirk]

Very often, a single drive system with redundancy is used. The problem with 2 drive systems is that you have double the probability of failure.<br /><br />Unless you have sufficient fuel on board for either system to complete the mission, you've just shot yourself in the foot.<br /><br />Best to only use drive systems that use the same fuel supply. If the tank is the failure point, you're probably screwed.

 

[vogon13]

There was some work on an earth bound laser ablating reaction mass on a space vehicle for propulsion.<br /><br />I don't recall the name or acronym for this one.<br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>

 

[vogon13]

Evel Knieval's steam powered rocket seems to have not caught the attention of any of the major space agencies.<br /><br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>

 

[brandbll]

I think it was called P.O.S. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font size="3">You wanna talk some jive? I'll talk some jive. I'll talk some jive like you've never heard!</font></p> </div>

 

[tomnackid]

The shuttle has experiemented with electromagnetic tethers. Put a long electrically conductive tether in orbit. Gravitational forces will make it orient with one end pointed toward the center of the Earth and the other end pointe away. As it moves through the Earth's magnetic field it acts like an electrical generator and produces a current. Pump electricity INTO the tether and it becomes the armature of a giant electric motor. Pump more electricity into it and the orbit gets higher--all without expending any reaction mass. When the shuttle crews tried deploying a tether for the first time even the modest sized one they were using generated enough current to melt the cable and end the experiment--so the effect is very real.

 

[webtaz99]

Tethers have limits. No useable field around Mars or the Moon, or between planets. There is a magnetic-based spin-off which uses the solar "wind". <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>