It took Voyager 1 over 30 years to reach interstellar space, but NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama is testing a new technology that could cut that time by two thirds. The Heliopause Electrostatic Rapid Transit System (HERTS) or E-sail concept is a novel form of propellant-less propulsion that catches the solar winds on electric sails and holds the promise of cutting the travel time from Earth to the heliopause – about 123 AU (18 billion km, 11 billion mi) from the Sun – to under 10 years.
.. Continue Reading NASA begins testing electronic sail technology for deep space probesCategory: Space
Tags: Related Articles:
- NASA to fly largest solar sail ever, in 2014
- NASA Sunjammer solar sail prepares to shoot the breeze
- "Sailing" spaceship could make return trips to Mars easier
- LightSail probe back on line
- Juno Jupiter probe sets solar-powered space distance record
- LightSail successfully deploys solar sail
from Gizmag Emerging Technology Magazine http://ift.tt/1Vq8I9F
No comments:
Post a Comment