New answers tagged interplanetary
12
The properties of the fictional Epstein Drive are:
Very high ISP with an exhaust velocity at least several percent of the speed of light
Very high thrust while achieving that ISP or near to it, enough for 5+ g burns.
Fusion powered.
Based on the first two parameters, the thrust power is insanely high - this is not a fission sail, NTR, or low-power fusion ...
15
From what I've been able to find, the "fluff" is that the Epstein Drive electromagnetically accelerates the exhaust, improving propellant consumption over a "standard" inertially-confined fusion drive. Electromagnetically accelerating plasma is certainly physically plausible...real world ion and plasma thruster designs do just that. The problem is that ...
2
Thank you for posting this interesting question. I learned a little more about navigation than I new before. This Paper from Purdue talks about the method in a little more detail. Although one can graphically follow a set of curves to identify that there is a path at a certain energy level (V-infinity) that takes one from one gravity assist to another, it ...
3
The big problem with sending supplies and fuel ahead is that there's many ways it could go wrong which would end up with the crew being dead.
There's no major advantage to sending supplies ahead of the mission to orbit another body, and a lot of risk. The thought is that you can split the cargoes and launch them in smaller, cheap rockets rather than ...
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