Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
A reactionless drive is a hypothetical device producing motion without the exhaust of a propellant.A propellantless drive is not necessarily reactionless when it constitutes an open system interacting with external fields; but a reactionless drive is a particular case of a propellantless drive that is a closed system, presumably in contradiction with the law of conservation of momentum.
Field propulsion is the concept of spacecraft propulsion where no propellant is necessary but instead momentum of the spacecraft is changed by an interaction of the spacecraft with external force fields, such as gravitational and magnetic fields from stars and planets.
The Tsiolkovsky rocket equation shows that for a rocket with a given empty mass and a given amount of propellant, the total change in velocity it can accomplish is proportional to the effective exhaust velocity. A spacecraft without propulsion follows an orbit determined by its trajectory and any gravitational field.
Atmosphere-breathing electric propulsion, or air-breathing electric propulsion, shortly ABEP, [1] is a propulsion technology for spacecraft, which could allow thrust generation in low orbits without the need of on-board propellant, by using residual gases in the atmosphere as propellant.
The Helical engine is a proposed spacecraft propulsion drive that, like other reactionless drives, would violate the laws of physics. [1] [2] [3]The concept was proposed by David M. Burns, formerly a NASA engineer at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, in a non-peer-reviewed report published on a NASA server in 2019 describing it as "A new concept for in-space propulsion is proposed ...
An antimatter rocket is a proposed class of rockets that use antimatter as their power source. There are several designs that attempt to accomplish this goal. The advantage to this class of rocket is that a large fraction of the rest mass of a matter/antimatter mixture may be converted to energy, allowing antimatter rockets to have a far higher energy density and specific impulse than any ...
Propellant is burned in a gas generator (or "preburner") and the resulting hot gas is used to power the propellant pumps before being exhausted overboard and lost. Because of this loss, this type of engine is termed open cycle
Magnetic sail animation. A magnetic sail is a proposed method of spacecraft propulsion where an onboard magnetic field source interacts with a plasma wind (e.g., the solar wind) to form an artificial magnetosphere (similar to Earth's magnetosphere) that acts as a sail, transferring force from the wind to the spacecraft requiring little to no propellant as detailed for each proposed magnetic ...