SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Steam-Powered Asteroid Hoppers Developed through UCF Collaboration
Using steam to propel a spacecraft from asteroid to asteroid is now possible, thanks to a collaboration between a private space company and the University of Central Florida.
UCF planetary research scientist Phil Metzger worked with Honeybee Robotics of Pasadena, California, which developed the World Is Not Enough spacecraft prototype that extracts water from asteroids or other planetary bodies to generate steam and propel itself to its next mining target.
UCF provided the simulated asteroid material and Metzger did the computer modeling and simulation necessary before Honeybee created the prototype and tried out the idea in its facility Dec. 31. The team also partnered with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, to develop initial prototypes of steam-based rocket thrusters.
"It's awesome," Metzger says of the demonstration. "WINE successfully mined the soil, made rocket propellant, and launched itself on a jet of steam extracted from the simulant. We could potentially use this technology to hop on the Moon, Ceres, Europa, Titan, Pluto, the poles of Mercury, asteroids — anywhere there is water and sufficiently low gravity."
What if it gets stuck in a shadowed crater and loses access to solar power?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 14 2019, @04:48AM (5 children)
The article is terribly short of science. The link "created the prototype and tried out the idea in its facility Dec. 31" says "Sorry, that page doesn’t exist!" So what exactly was achieved here? I'd like to know how they generate high pressure steam from stone, which [most] asteroids seem to be.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday January 14 2019, @05:02AM
Water
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 14 2019, @05:07AM (3 children)
https://www.space.com/27969-earth-water-from-asteroids-not-comets.html [space.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 14 2019, @06:23AM (2 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 14 2019, @06:51AM
Right, which is why I linked an article about asteroids having more water than comets. This probe should be able to find enough water if they're smart about keeping it charged. I imagine the solar panels will simply be in addition to another power source, but I don't build the things.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday January 14 2019, @08:23AM
Question: do you REALLY have to purify the water to the point of potability, or even to purity (which is not the same thing)? There is some point at which, too many impurities is going to clog up your reaction engine. Otherwise - what do you care? Reaction mass is reaction mass, right? A bit or iron, silica, or whatever, won't detract from the reaction, so long as it will pass through the jets. Obviously, it will be necessary to filter and/or sift any impurities picked up from the body from which you are stealing water. But, in limited quantities and sizes, I think you'll find that a lot of crap can be jetted out the ass-end of your engine. The typical ocean lagoon on earth could supply reaction mass without any purification. Probably don't want to pick up any shellfish, or suck up a lot of sand from the bottom, don't need any chunks of coral - but otherwise, you're good to go.
The primary reason an ocean going ship wants pure water for it's steam engines, is that the brine will corrode the engines, rapidly. If the engine is operating in a vacuum, that corrosion isn't going to happen. The only bad thing I see happening from impure water is, someone will have to go inside the engine occassionally, and remove built up scale.