#spacecraft propulsion

[noctumsolis]

I just had some fun estimating the power required to accelerate a spacecraft alike in mass to a modern container ship at 1G using ion thrusters.

I came up with a ballpark figure of 25GW.

That's...a lot of power.

Ground based nuclear power plants seem on average to produce about 3GW and these are not small structures and you'd need around eight of them. The ship would be out-massed by its power plant several times over.

Now, it's not insoluble. Using beamed energy, such as a ground based laser or stellar laser targeted at receptors on the spacecraft would make it possible. But carrying the power plant would be out of the question.

Then there's the issue of heat, and with real world efficiencies that's going to be a major problem. The amount of radiators the ship would need is something I don't know how to estimate, but I'm confident that it'd be another serious chunk of mass.

So, best to keep anything like present day ion thrusters to low acceleration scenarios.

[opticflux]

Could We Finally Visit Our Neighboring Stars? New Spacecraft Propulsion Idea Could Make It Happen

Space exploration is like that one dream trip you’ve been planning for years — exciting, mysterious, but outrageously expensive and time-consuming. Except in this case, the dream trip is to the nearest star system, and instead of packing a suitcase, we’re packing a spacecraft with hopes and a whole lot of physics. So, what’s new? A bunch of brainy physicists now think we might have a more…

Could We Finally Visit Our Neighboring Stars? New Spacecraft Propulsion Idea Could Make It Happen

[harshbisr-0]

Space Propulsion System Market Analysis for the North America Region | [Bis Research]

The Global Space Propulsion System Market report by BIS Research projects the market to grow at a CAGR of 11.76% on the basis of value during the forecast period from 2020 to 2025.

North America is expected to dominate the space propulsion systems market with an estimated share of 44.20% in 2019.

North America, including the major countries such as the U.S., is the most prominent region for the space propulsion system. The presence of major players and intense competition among them makes North America the most technologically advanced region.

[terranspaceacademy-blog]

Terran Space Academy

Foundation for Colonization of Space

[monicanerkarblog-blog]

Satellite Propulsion System Market Research Report 2018 published By Market Research Future, provides information on Global Satellite Propulsion System Market By Industry Analysis, Market Growth and Opportunity Assessment, Segmentation by Propulsion Type (Chemical Propulsion, Hybrid Propulsion and All-electric propulsion), & by Region – Global Forecast to 2023 Satellite Propulsion System Market Scenario Advent of low cost …

[tediousfact]

EM Drive update (AKA $@#*-ing magnetic fields, how do they work)

The EM Drive is a propellant-less thruster technology that’s made the news a few times and I’ve talked about once or twice. That second post explains why I didn’t bother even glancing at it for the interstellar spacecraft idea I’m playing with right now. Even if it did work as advertised, the EM Drive probably would never have a high enough thrust to weight ratio to open up the galaxy to us.

And now, researchers in Germany have identified the interaction between insufficiently shielded power supply cables and Earth’s magnetic field as being a sufficient explanation for the thrust that the EM Drive has been observed to create. That doesn’t entirely rule out the possibility that the EM Drive, or the Mach-Effect thruster are still doing something, but it strongly suggests that they aren’t the revolutionary propulsion systems that seemingly defy the laws of physics that their advocates would like them to be.

So I’m going back to dreaming about using the entire planet’s nuclear weapons arsenal several times over to send a small manufacturing town on a 500 year trip to the nearest star. You know, because I only like thinking about practical ideas.

[newsdock]

Virgin 'ignored' space safety warnings: expert

Virgin Galactic "ignored" repeated warnings in the years leading up to the deadly crash of its spacecraft in California, a rocket science safety expert said Sunday, as investigators hunted for clues to the accident. Carolynne Campbell, a rocket propulsion expert with the Netherlands-based International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety, said she could not speculate on the cause of Friday's crash without "all the data." "Based on the work we've done, including me writing a paper on the handling of nitrous oxide, we were concerned about what was going on at Virgin Galactic," she told AFP. "I sent copies of the paper to various people at Virgin Galactic in 2009, and they were ignored." http://dlvr.it/7PH5hD