alt Hacker NewsNew Satellite Engine Could Use Earth's Atmosphere to Stay in Orbit Indefinitely
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The thing is is this kind of engine does better than a regular one +big tank of propeller in the lifetime of a VLEO satellite, which due to newer regulation by the US is 5 years, so you don't really need eve a big tank
Basically the attempt to make a Bussard Ramjet work? I just wonder if the drag isn't just too much to overcome, can't wait for their prototype results.
Feels like someone SpaceX would be very interested in hiring.
Too bad this wasn’t available for SWIFT.
'contactless, neutralizer-less radio-frequency (RF) helicon plasma thruster'
fairly sure that wins just on the absolute impossibility of creating an acronym , just all business
works in wind tunnel testing.
if only it could be used to remove carbon from the atmosphere..
The Earth's upper atmosphere is delicate. It's already being disturbed with rocket fuel residue and particulate space junk. Vacuuming up air and ionizing it risks putting the upper atmosphere even more out of balance.
Very much not a new idea: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_low_Earth_orbit
Though fun to see. More interesting than the station keeping (indefinite part) is that it enables ~100km orbits, which are ~5x closer than what remote sensing satellites use today and thus could get 5x the resolution for the same instrument.