spacecraft propulsion
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NASA’s Detonation Engine Revs Up for 4 Minutes in Breakthrough Test
NASA just put its new propulsion system to the test, powering a 3D-printed rotating detonation rocket engine for a sustained burn that lasted three times as long as the first test. The Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine, or RDRE, produced more than 5,800 pounds of thrust for a total of 251 seconds (a little longer than…
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We Can’t Wait for These Futuristic Rockets to Finally Blast Off
Rockets remain the best way to escape our planet’s gravity well, and we’re now tossing more things into space than ever before.
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NASA Moves Ahead With Wild Solar Sail Concept
A project to develop diffractive solar sails has advanced to the third and final phase of NASA’s advanced concepts program. The team behind the project now has two years to further develop this unconventional means of space propulsion.
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EmDrive, the ‘Impossible’ Engine Tested by NASA, Is Knocked Down Once Again
Five years ago, NASA researchers experimented with an object called the EmDrive (or electromagnetic drive), a Y-shaped metal chamber in which, they reported, thrust could be produced without propellant. Such a contraption would refute core principles of physics as we know them and eliminate a huge barrier to deep space travel by nullifying the need…