The world needs a new source of energy, an unspillable source.

Random Post

(may be broke/outdated!)

4 Responses

  1. How long can you live? What velocity do you reach?

    A solar sail would be OK out past the orbit of Jupiter or maybe Uranus, but sometime after that the solar wind would not have much force and the sail might become a liability.

    The velocity obtained from an ion drive depends on the thrust and the mass of the vehicle being driven, just like any other rocket, (or railway locomotive for that matter) and for the length of time it operates. Since you have not supplied these figures, the result cannot be calculated. But the final velocity will be the integral of acceleration over time as calculated by Newton hundreds of years ago.

  2. Well, just looking at the time for the journey, it seems unreasonable with either technology, so I wouldn’t worry about the fuel consumption equations.

    At current propulsion rates, it would take around 29 million centuries to get to Proxima Centauri. An ion drive is about 10 times faster, so that only reduces the journey to around 3 million centuries!

    Best to wait for antimatter. At 94% of the speed of light, that brings your trip to the nearest star down to about 4.5 years.

  3. Hello and thanks for a really neat question. I do not have all of the answers and will yield to others who may be more astute in that area. However, it seems obvious to me that the Solar Sail will only produce useful thrust within our Solar System…Once you get out on the fringe of that, the benefits of the sail should become negligible.

    Ion propulsion breaks down Xenon gas as I recall to produce the ions which are emitted at a high velocity in a tiny little stream. The system does not produce massive thrust, but it does produce thrust continuously over long periods which is better than one big kick in the pants (rocket blast). Of course, it will be necessary to carry a huge tank of compressed gas on board the space ship (manned or unmanned) for this to do any good. In the few articles that I read there was no mention of how much gas this was, or how many cubic feet of tankage that would require for XYZ hours of engine running. Your question appears to need that information in order to project possible distance travel capabilities, etc.

    We will most likely have to wait for further information releases from NASA to solve this issue. Doing some
    question asking of my own, I have learned that the velocities of most space craft (manned or unmanned) so far have been within the region of 25,000 to 50,000 Miles Per Hour. The unmanned vehicles have been the ones that made it up to the 50,000 MPH speed range with thrust from the sling-shot effect as the ship passed by certain planets.

    Regards,
    Zah

  4. What kind of ions are we working with? The current xenon type or some other element that may in the future prove to be better? One concept considers using the sparce helium and hydrogen and other interstellar wind materials to “recharge” our ion fuel tanks.

    Next, the solar sail would be good as far as the solar wind goes…which diminishes according to the inverse square law. The size of the sail would, like on a sailboat, determine the acceleration rate, etc. However, as you were approaching the other star, the solar wind vestiges would be overcome by the stellar wind of the target star and this would tend to reverse our progress. As any sailor would tell you, the only way to go, as you approach the source of the wind, is to tack…and this would add a tremendous amount of time and distance to your voyage.

    Time to reconsider your trip project?

How far could Ion propulsion and a Solar Sail take you?

Hi,
I’ve been trying to work out how far you could get using a spacecraft which uses both a solar sail and ion propulsion.
The nearest star (other than the sun) Is proxima centauri, which is 4.22 light years away. Could we send a spacecraft all the way to proxima centauri, using just a solar sail and ion propulsion? If so, how much further could we get a spacecraft using that propulsion system to go? Thanks in advance for your answers!
Sorry, I forgot to add, I meant an unmanned spacecraft, already being used or developed by NASA, ESA or another space agency (I’m sorry, I’m not sure which one would be the most efficient in this case.)
Assuming also that time was not of any consequence.