Ion Rocket Engine Can Take Us to Mars Faster

[Marcus Yam]

Just like in Star Trek!

Ion Rocket Engine Can Take Us to Mars Faster : Read more

 

[agnickolov]

Just put two of them on the craft and you get a TIE ferry...

 

[peterkidd]

Good job Canada.

I want to see a Biefeld-brown/superfluid engine though.

 

[Regulas]

Very cool and also not mentioned if you are under constant thrust you will have a type of artificial gravity too.

 

[Abrahm]

Awesome! Twin Ion Engine Fighters incoming!

 

[daft]

wow, sorry, but i read this over on physorg about 2 weeks ago

 

[superblahman123]

Sing it slowly now:

"dah-dah-dah-dahhhhhhh! dah! dah-dah-dah-dah!!! dah! dah-dah-dah-dah!!! dah! dah-dah-dah-dahhhhhh!"

 

[skine]

Interestingly, it took Columbus 36 days to sail from the Canary Islands to the Bahamas.

 

[ubernoobie]

Yay canada

 

[cheepstuff]

this idea has been around for a loooonnngg time. it's good to see that they are testing it.
basically they take a heavy noble gass like xenon and ionize it. then they fire it out the back with increadably fast (using an electric current). this engine does not create as much thrust as a rocket engine, but the idea is you can fire this for weeks at a time while using little energy.

 

[rajaton]

[citation][nom]skine[/nom]Interestingly, it took Columbus 36 days to sail from the Canary Islands to the Bahamas.[/citation]

Yes...although I don't think that the astronauts will have the option to get a tropical tan

 

[Upendra09]

and it u can complete the trip in 30 dats using the Intel i9 six core

FLAME ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[ckthecerealkiller]

[citation][nom]superblahman123[/nom]Sing it slowly now:"dah-dah-dah-dahhhhhhh! dah! dah-dah-dah-dah!!! dah! dah-dah-dah-dah!!! dah! dah-dah-dah-dahhhhhh!"[/citation]
I don't know whether to flame you for getting the wrong "star" series. Or to hold off my nerdly urges, to avoid the ridicule that comes with recognizing something like that.

 

[Khimera2000]

cool strap a couple of the engines from the falcon program and you have the makes of a cool plain/space craft

 

[Upendra09]

wow only one negative post, come on hide me ppl

 

[crisisavatar]

Ok that is cool and probably meaningful regardless of how I feel about playing in space.

 

[eklipz330]

[citation][nom]rajaton[/nom]Yes...although I don't think that the astronauts will have the option to get a tropical tan[/citation]

...or take off their helmets

 

[Honis]

They had Ion Engines in Star Trek?

I've been keeping up with this research for awhile and I think this is some of the most revolutionary engineering of our century.

 

[outacontrolpimp]

[citation][nom]Upendra09[/nom]and it u can complete the trip in 30 dats using the Intel i9 six coreFLAME ME!!!!!!!!!!!!![/citation]

I gave you a thumbs down just for saying "dats" let alone the i9 watever bs, what are you 8?

 

[alextheblue]

"Ion propulsion system designed partly in Canada." The last I looked, the most advanced ion engine was primarily designed by Ad Astra in Texas. It's the VASIMR engine. Yes, Canada builds one of the main pieces of hardware for it, yes they were involved. I'm not trying to take that away from Canada, its just that you obviously skipped over any details of the origin of the engine, or you didn't bother to do any actual independent research. Or you're just the Al Gore of Canada, inventing the internet AND ion engines.

"The ion drive engine is able to turn electrical power into thrust, which would make solar panels extra useful." Do you think solar panels would generate enough electricity to reliably power these things? The current VX-200 generated 201 kilowatts, enough to keep the ISS afloat using .3 tons of fuel. I've seen estimates for a Mars mission requiring a 10-20 megawatt ion engine. That would require some serious solar panels... but then again I hear they build everything bigger in Texas. Maybe they'll have a couple of square miles of solar panels strapped to that baby.