Quote from: ChrisWilson68 on 06/19/2013 05:59 amPlasma thrusters are a subset of ion thrusters.No they're not. Plasma is not ions, by definition.
Plasma thrusters are a subset of ion thrusters.
Actually, plasma is ions, mixed in with electrons. Turning a gas into a plasma is called "ionizing" it.The Wikipedia entry for "Plasma propulsion engine" starts with "A plasma propulsion engine is a type of Ion thruster..."
Seeing as you're disinterested in actually reading what was linked, can you please stop commenting on it like you have?
.. and five more flights. Including a completely successful deployment.
... the Shotput tests, whose ABL X248 carried the test balloons only to 200 to 250 miles above the surface ...
http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/10/floating-airship-could-radically-reduce.htmlQuoteQuestion: For the airship going to orbit, would the engines be chemical, ion, or some sort of hybrid?The engines would be a hybrid, employing both ion thrusters and chemical propulsion. At certain points we will be using ion thrust, and at other points we will be using chemical. There is a tradeoff between efficiency and time to orbit, the more efficient you are, the longer it takes to achieve orbital velocity. Rockets are measured in terms of specific impulse, which provides an indication of the efficiency of the system, with higher being better. The specific impulse of our hybrid is about 1100, which compares to about 450 for chemical rockets and 30,000 for ion thrusters. So this hybrid can either be viewed as being the most efficient chemical rocket ever, or the least efficient ion rocket.Question: So this rocket is half ion and half chemical?Yes, it is almost always half and half. The final insertion is all chemical. The chemical rocket will use wax/nitrous oxide. That is what we are currently testing. With sufficient R&D, I am confident that we could get a hybrid engine up to 2,000 specific impulse. That would obviously have a beneficial effect on payload capacity, perhaps as much as a quarter increase in payload.
Question: For the airship going to orbit, would the engines be chemical, ion, or some sort of hybrid?The engines would be a hybrid, employing both ion thrusters and chemical propulsion. At certain points we will be using ion thrust, and at other points we will be using chemical. There is a tradeoff between efficiency and time to orbit, the more efficient you are, the longer it takes to achieve orbital velocity. Rockets are measured in terms of specific impulse, which provides an indication of the efficiency of the system, with higher being better. The specific impulse of our hybrid is about 1100, which compares to about 450 for chemical rockets and 30,000 for ion thrusters. So this hybrid can either be viewed as being the most efficient chemical rocket ever, or the least efficient ion rocket.Question: So this rocket is half ion and half chemical?Yes, it is almost always half and half. The final insertion is all chemical. The chemical rocket will use wax/nitrous oxide. That is what we are currently testing. With sufficient R&D, I am confident that we could get a hybrid engine up to 2,000 specific impulse. That would obviously have a beneficial effect on payload capacity, perhaps as much as a quarter increase in payload.
Inside the tail of the new Ascender
Putting away the port Ascender envelope at the end of the day.