New Satellite Engine Could Use Earth's Atmosphere to Stay in Orbit Indefinitely

chris_va

Very much not a new idea: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_low_Earth_orbit Though fun to see. More interesting than the station keeping (indefinite part) is that it enables ~100km orbits, which are ~5x closer than what remote sensing satellites use today and thus could get 5x the resolution for the same instrument.

metalman

'contactless, neutralizer-less radio-frequency (RF) helicon plasma thruster' fairly sure that wins just on the absolute impossibility of creating an acronym , just all business works in wind tunnel testing.

while_true_

The Earth's upper atmosphere is delicate. It's already being disturbed with rocket fuel residue and particulate space junk. Vacuuming up air and ionizing it risks putting the upper atmosphere even more out of balance.

fouc

if only it could be used to remove carbon from the atmosphere..

PowerElectronix

The thing is is this kind of engine does better than a regular one +big tank of propeller in the lifetime of a VLEO satellite, which due to newer regulation by the US is 5 years, so you don't really need eve a big tank

NetMageSCW

Feels like someone SpaceX would be very interested in hiring. Too bad this wasn’t available for SWIFT.

rf15

Basically the attempt to make a Bussard Ramjet work? I just wonder if the drag isn't just too much to overcome, can't wait for their prototype results. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bussard_ramjet

Danox

I would hope technology is moving into that direction, because the current primitive system is not sustainable. Also note, this will mean cooperation with all of your so-called allies, uh-oh…