| Title | See NASA's Hot, New Moon Lander Thruster Glow-Up During Testing | |
| Date | Thursday March 26 2020, @04:25PM | |
| Author | Fnord666 | |
| Topic | ||
| from the get-the-thrust-of-it dept. | ||
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Thrusters are the unsung heroes of the engine world. They make the small adjustments that help orient a spacecraft. NASA is testing out some next-gen thrusters for its future lunar landers, and they are glowing.
NASA and Frontier Aerospace, which is developing the thrusters, put two prototypes through 60 hot-fire tests in a vacuum chamber in March. NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted an animated GIF on Wednesday of one of the prototypes glowing during a test. It looks like the world's most awesome night light.
We’re developing next-gen thrusters to be used on @Astrobotic's Peregrine lunar lander. The vacuum chamber hot-fire tests of a thruster prototype were the first in a series of tests to ready this lightweight, cost-saving technology for space: https://t.co/0gYfRzJC3K pic.twitter.com/Nud3Qq2Vum
— Jim Bridenstine (@JimBridenstine)
The thrusters, which are part of the agency's Thruster for the Advancement of Low-temperature Operation in Space (TALOS) project, use a propellant called MON-25, which should work well in the extremely low temperatures in space. NASA said it will make spacecraft systems smaller, lighter and less expensive.
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printed from SoylentNews, See NASA's Hot, New Moon Lander Thruster Glow-Up During Testing on 2024-05-03 06:40:24