Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by chromas on Monday January 14 2019, @04:20AM   Printer-friendly
from the steam-sails dept.

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?


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday January 14 2019, @08:03PM (1 child)

    by bob_super (1357) on Monday January 14 2019, @08:03PM (#786598)
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday January 14 2019, @08:17PM

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Monday January 14 2019, @08:17PM (#786604) Journal

    Well, it's the only way you would ever get the Brits out there! The next problem will be figuring out when tea time is. Can't have the tea kettles whistling randomly around the clocks, can we?