In what could be a game changer in space exploration, NASA has successfully tested a “microwave thruster system” that requires no propellant to generate thrust.
The engine appears to produce propulsion through electricity and nothing else.
In a test paper, NASA scientists said they recorded about 30-50 micro-Newtons (mN) of thrust from an electrical propulsion test article, harnessing subatomic quantum particles.
Testing was performed on a low-thrust torsion pendulum that is capable of detecting force at a single-digit micronewton level, within a stainless steel vacuum chamber with the door closed but at ambient atmospheric pressure.
This means that NASA may be able to create an inexpensive low-thrust, long-term technology with virtually no cost.
The discovery can also reduce the cost of maintaining orbital stability of satellites and interstellar travel.
“This unique electric propulsion device is producing a force not attributable to any electromagnetic phenomenon, and is potentially interacting with quantum vacuum virtual plasma,” NASA said in the test paper.
The US space agency now plan to run further tests to validate its findings.
NASA’s Messenger spacecraft, sent to study the Mercury 10 years back, will observe the planet at lower altitudes.
This is likely to result in exciting scientific discoveries, NASA said in a statement as Messenger completed 10 years on Sunday. Mercury is the planet closest to the Sun.
The aim of the spacecraft blasted off Aug 3, 2004 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, was to take the small satellite dangerously close to Mercury’s surface — paving the way for an ambitious study of the planet.
The spacecraft has so far travelled 7.9 billion km including 15 trips around the Sun and flybys of Earth once, Venus twice, and Mercury thrice before it was inserted into orbit around its target planet in 2011, the statement added.
“We have operated successfully in orbit for more than three Earth years and more than 14 Mercury years as we celebrate this amazing 10th anniversary milestone,” said Andy Calloway, Messenger Mission Operations manager from Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL).
After Mariner 10, Messenger is only the second spacecraft sent to Mercury.
Mariner flew past Mercury three times between 1974 and 1975 and collected data on less than half the surface.
Messenger took advantage of an ingenious trajectory design, lightweight materials and miniaturization of electronics — all developed in three decades since Mariner 10 flew past Mercury.
The mission has rewritten scientists’ understanding of the planet “and given us plenty of surprises”, NASA added.
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