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Researchers led by NASA's former chief technologist are hoping to launch a satellite carrying water as the source of its fuel. The team from Cornell University, guided by Mason Peck, want their device to become the first shoebox-sized "CubeSat" to orbit the moon, while demonstrating the potential of water as a source of spacecraft fuel. It's a safe, stable substance that's relatively common even in space, but could also find greater use here on Earth as we search for alternatives to fossil fuels.
Water is a way around this issue because it is essentially an energy carrier rather than a fuel. The Cornell team isn't planning to use water itself as a propellant but to rather use electricity from solar panels to split the water into hydrogen and oxygen and use them as the fuel. The two gasses, when recombined and ignited will burn or explode, giving out the energy that they took in during the splitting process. This combustion of gasses can be used to drive the satellite forward, gaining speed or altering its position in orbit of whichever desired planet or moon is the target.
Solar panels, with high reliability and no moving parts, are ideally suited to operate in zero gravity and in the extreme environments of space, producing current from sunlight and allowing the satellite to actively engage on its mission. Traditionally this energy is stored in batteries. But the Cornell scientists want to use it to create their fuel source by splitting the on-board water.
Source: http://phys.org/news/2016-09-space-rocket-fuel-power-revolution.html
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Friday September 30 2016, @02:28AM
Yup. Current ones use Xenon, but while a noble gas might simplify some of the design there should not be any unsolvable obstacle to firing any old mass you happen to have out the rear at very speed.
(Score: 1) by Tara Li on Friday September 30 2016, @02:51PM
Indeed. The Dawn Probe lifted off with about 425 kg of Xenon for its mission. It made two asteroid rendezvous and one orbit escape on it, plus a Mars gravity slingshot, plus other assorted orbital adjustments and maneuvering.
I'm thinking ... Musk's Interplanetary Transporter, attached to a station that makes figure-8s between Earth & Mars, using ion thrusters to build the carrier ship up to a damned good pace. Momentum bank tether stations... Seriously.
And that monster big ship Musk is talking about sending 100 people & 100 tons of cargo to Mars with? How would it do for a Lunar mission? Big, big ship - but for a 3 day trip instead of a three month one? MMmmmmm..... After the first is built, how much to build the second, or third?