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.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 14 2019, @05:18AM (2 children)
I just knew steampunk would be our way off this planet!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 14 2019, @05:31AM (1 child)
Got your personal savings locked away in outfits huh? Good investment ;)
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Monday January 14 2019, @06:17AM
Maybe just monocles [hivemill.com]
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 3, Informative) by Pslytely Psycho on Monday January 14 2019, @05:43AM (5 children)
That design is not at all appropriate!
It needs much more brass, cast ornately, and festooned in the finest 19th century zeitgeist.
And maybe goggles for the cameras and a top-hat.
Link that works:
https://www.sciencealert.com/this-crazy-steam-powered-probe-could-pretty-much-explore-space-forever [sciencealert.com]
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday January 14 2019, @06:19AM (4 children)
I'm a little teapot
Short and stouts
Here is my handle
Here is my spout
When I get all steamed up
I just shout
Tip me over and pour me out
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday January 14 2019, @07:22PM (1 child)
I've got tiny fingers
short and stout
I'll get my way
or I will pout!
When I get all steamed up
hear me shout!
Tweet: you're fired, now get out!
If we work together, we can cut all homeless people and poor people in half by the end of 2025!
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Tuesday January 15 2019, @06:51AM
You're tweeting about me. I can tell you're tweeting about me. Saying some things that are very nasty. And by the way, not true. So many foolish people say, "oh, his hands are very small." They haven't seen my hands. My hands are too big. Really, they're too big. But the haters & loosers say, "oh, small hands, small hands!" Terrible people. And you're terrible for tweeting that. When you should be thanking me. Look what happened in your bank account. Your paycheck. And, your brokerage account. Extra money -- because of me. Because I signed the biggest Tax Cut in the history of our Country. And our House & Senate GOP, they worked very hard on that one. But I signed it, so beautifully. And, I put in the Tariffs. China is paying HUGE Tariffs, they don't want Tariffs. But I'm making them pay. It's a lot of money for our government. And it's wonderful for our manufacturers. So many factories coming to our Country. In many cases, coming back after 20, 30 years of manufacturing in China or Mexico. No more NAFTA, we're doing USMCA now. And it's magnificent for our trade deficit. We had tremendous deficits with Mexico. And with our foe, Canada. Those, very quickly, are turning around. And we'll see huge amounts of money -- billions of dollars -- coming back to the coffers of our Country. To pay for the Wall. To pay for my military -- Space Force and Cyber Space Force -- my Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency. Which I call, CSIA. Because CIA, unfortunately, was taken. Part of our DHS. That one is going to be paid for by Mexico. And they're going to do the cyber for the Wall. So indirectly, Mexico will be paying for the Wall.
NASA, as you know, a lot of their Space Ships go BOOM. They explode all over the place and it's a total disaster for everybody in the Ships Department. And I looked into that, a lot of times it's the digital that makes them explode. They don't use the modern digital, they use the old. Very careful about that. But, so many times it's still a problem. So I said to them, do the same thing, but without the digital. With goddamned steam. And it's going to work much better. For much less money. Same thing, less money and it won't explode as much. You put in the coal-fired Boiler and you can go anywhere. All the planets, the moons and the everything else. We call it a Steam Ship. Everybody knows Steam Ship, it's very reliable. It's not the fastest. Not as fast as the cyber. But you can count on it. Very few explosions with that one. You crash it into an iceberg, not so great -- Titanic. Everybody's seen Titanic, right? Leonardo DiCaprio, great performance in that one. That one came out in '97. Massive success. And the next year -- 1998 -- I starred with him in Celebrity. He was at his peak. But people are saying, I'm the real star of Celebrity. America First!!!
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday January 14 2019, @08:03PM (1 child)
So, there will be a teapot in space after all [wikipedia.org] !
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday January 14 2019, @08:17PM
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?
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 14 2019, @06:14AM (1 child)
I thought WINE was working pretty well years ago.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday January 14 2019, @07:24PM
Yes, but WINE working under Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is much more recent.
If we work together, we can cut all homeless people and poor people in half by the end of 2025!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Monday January 14 2019, @06:17AM (2 children)
My take: if you have enough energy to mine asteroids, obtaining volatiles to make the hop to the next destination is almost trivial.
Crushing rocks and separating non-trivial amount of minerals (without using chemical means, not renewable) will take more energy than traveling to the next destination. In the process of mining at least the oxygen in the oxides you'll be separating can be recovered and use for propulsion.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 14 2019, @07:53AM (1 child)
Adding machinery to synthesize rocket fuel would take more space than for processing water, and just handling such fuel is more difficult. This design seems more like a sampling probe, not a cargo runner.
I'm curious what the big ones will be like.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday January 14 2019, @08:25AM
Like humans, they aren't so cute when they grow up.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 2) by pkrasimirov on Monday January 14 2019, @03:12PM
> What if it gets stuck in a shadowed crater and loses access to solar power?
It ded.