Tiny Ion Engine Runs On Water 103
symbolset writes "Discovery News is covering a project by two engineers from the University of Michigan to pair cubesats with tiny ion engines for inexpensive interplanetary exploration. The tiny plasma drive called the CubeSat Ambipolar Thruster (CAT) will ionize water and use it as propellant with power provided by solar cells. In addition to scaling down the size of ion engines they hope to bring down the whole cost of development and launch to under $200,000."
No, it runs on sunlight. (Score:5, Informative)
Extremely misleading and dishonest headline (Score:1, Informative)
The submitter should be ashamed of itself.
Re:No, it runs on sunlight. (Score:5, Informative)
The propellant used is incidental, as evidenced by the ion drives that run on xenon, for example.
Actually, there are *very* good reasons for why specific kinds of engines run on specific kinds of propellants. "Incidental" is hardly the word I'd use.
No mention of the kickstarter? (Score:2, Informative)
Summary makes no mention of the CAT [kickstarter.com] kickstarter campaign for this thing.
Re:No, it runs on sunlight. (Score:3, Informative)