Leaked from NASA: A Rocket Propulsion System That Ejects No Mass

theregister.co.uk

9 pointsdanm076 comments

Paper [1] quotes the system's efficiency at 1.2 mN/kW.

Hall thrusters, a propellant-throwing electric engine, perform at 60 mN/kW. Non-propellant systems like light sails, laser propulsion and photon rockets perform around 0.0033 to 0.0067 mN/kW.

If it works, this isn't how you get people to Mars. It's how you move cheaply freight (and probes) around (and out of) the Solar System.

[1] https://regmedia.co.uk/2016/11/09/q_thruster.pdf

Considering the physics behind this is new we can safely assume there's room for improvement.

Point is it's already an order of magnitude above other non-propellant systems.

Oups I actually read the values in reverse...

My point still stands though even if not relevant to your statement.

This might very well be how you get people to Mars also at least partially since you won't need propellant and you can keep accelerating for almost no cost during the journey.

Not quite, you can only accelerate half way, then you have to decelerate the other half. (if only using this) Adding sufficient thrusters could mitigate the long deceleration.

Thruster + Ion Engine combination starts looking much better.

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