Researcher’s experimental ion drive outperforms NASA’s HiPEP engine

It seems as if the age of the bench-top breakthrough in rocket science is not a thing of the past. Dr Patrick Neumann of the University of Sydney has developed a new ion drive as part of his PhD thesis that is claimed to outperform the best one devised by NASA. According to Neumann, his new drive, which is still in the experimental stage, is more efficient than the latest High Power Electric Propulsion (HiPEP) ion engine and holds the promise of “Mars and back on a tank of fuel.”

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CrazyNeutrino said:

Researcher’s experimental ion drive outperforms NASA’s HiPEP engine

It seems as if the age of the bench-top breakthrough in rocket science is not a thing of the past. Dr Patrick Neumann of the University of Sydney has developed a new ion drive as part of his PhD thesis that is claimed to outperform the best one devised by NASA. According to Neumann, his new drive, which is still in the experimental stage, is more efficient than the latest High Power Electric Propulsion (HiPEP) ion engine and holds the promise of “Mars and back on a tank of fuel.”

more..

If only his name was Von Neumann :)

> The most effective ion drives in use today are electrostatic or electromagnetic propulsion systems. That is, they work by taking a gas, such as xenon, ionizing it by electron bombardment, radiofrequency excitation, or other methods and then accelerating the resulting ionized gas or plasma using an electrostatic grid or a magnet field. The most effective of these are the ones based on the Hall effect, which uses an axial electrical field and a radial magnetic field into which electrons are squirted. The magnetic field holds the electrons in place and, as a propellant gas is introduced, they pick up a charge. Since the gas is heavier than the electrons, when the electric field is applied, the gas atoms can easily escape the magnetic field and be accelerated to produce thrust. Of all the top-flight ion drives, the current prize winner uses a conventional hollow cathode configuration and a microwave electron cyclotron.

Good to know.

I noticed that Grant’s antigravity machine from Mythbusters was an ion engine. It consisted of almost nothing more than two parallel triangular loops of wire and a bit of high voltage electrics. The top triangular loop ionised the air and the lower triangular loop accelerated the ions downward providing lift. I agree with Adam that it was the coolest thing ever seen on Mythbusters.