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[FRA_stoneyface_XC]

check here for the article: http://www.tfot.info/news/1006/mini-mag-orion-will-reach-for-the-stars.html

it's a new type of spacecraft that is sporting a new nuclear propulsion system that is unlike anything you've ever seen before. check it out. very cool stuff. it has the potential to drastically shorten space flight times between planets to more manageable durations.

it uses a magnetic field to cause small pellets of nuclear fuel to explode behind it to cause forward thrust!

[Sirgod]

That's cool as hell.

Stephen

[Panzergranate]

Er.... Isn't that the exact method that Rick Steinbeck describes the DY100, DY300 and DY500 Class sub light ships use in the 1979 Space Flight Chronology??

Star Trek TOS roughly predicts the future/present once more.

I liked the arguements about the exhaust products and the fact that not one person spotted the fact Solar Wind would blow them out of the Solar System just likeit does comet tails and other low mass debris.

NASA has planned Solar Wind sailing ships and probes in the past, knowing just how powerful this force actually is.

Also 10% of light speed would allow an unmanned  probe to reach Alpha Centuari (3.97 LY) in around 30 years, although it would take 4 years for the telemetry to reach Earth from the mission!!

[Vipre]

Kind of thought the New Antimatter Engine Design was cooler myself but this is still nice. Guess I'm just itching for that first gen "warp core" to be announced before I die.

[Panzergranate]

At the moment the first and only Ion Powered space craft is the British one that was launched by the European Space Agency 4 or 5 years ago as an experimental test bed.

I think it's called ICAN 1.

The mentioned it on a science show, here in the UK, last year.

It isn't very large compared to COM SATS, being about the size of a automotive engine block.

The amount of thrust generated was quoted as, "As strong as a baby breaking wind". However, it has been orbiting the Earth for a few years, half way between the Earth and Moon, gradually picking up speed and gaining a higher orbit as it does so.

The point is that the craft has proved that a Solar Powered Ion Drive does work.

The scientists on the show, did point out that it wouldn't work so well the further away from the Sun the craft travelled, being totally dependant on Sunlight for fuel.
 
Still good for as far away as Saturn though.

There is a view to use it as a seconadry propulsion system on future larger space craft in a similar vien to the Particle Beam thrusters used by the Federation starships in Star Trek.