Wow! Didn't Werner von Braun play that role... which is designer and administrator?
Quote from: Mr. Scott on 05/27/2014 05:02 amWow! Didn't Werner von Braun play that role... which is designer and administrator?von Braun was never NASA administrator. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Administrators_and_Deputy_Administrators_of_NASAbut IIRC he was the first director of Marshall.
Hello everybody.Well, to answer the initial question, I would say that many people are interested in VASIMR propulsion or more generally electric based propulsion.But, instead of VASIMR, that is not yet ready to fly (as far as I know, sorry of I'm wrong), I would rather focus on the Snecma PPS series that is really flying since september 2003 and the SMART-1 mission to the moon.More informations here : http://www.snecma.com/IMG/files/gammeplasmiqueen_modulvoir_file_fr.pdfThe PPS-20000 seems to be very interesting to me, when compared to VASIMIR figures. Let me know your opinion ...
""We are kind of stuck," says Franklin Chang-Diaz, Ad Astra CEO and president. The company's current SAA expires in early December. Chang-Diaz says the project is unlikely to advance further without a NASA-funded SAA successor, one the company would prefer to structure like the 2005 Commercial Orbital Transportation Services initiative that spawned Falcon 9/Dragon and Orbital Sciences' Antares/Cygnus ISS resupply services." - June 2014, Aviation WeekApparently they need about $11 million.
Quote from: manboy on 11/30/2014 10:37 pm""We are kind of stuck," says Franklin Chang-Diaz, Ad Astra CEO and president. The company's current SAA expires in early December. Chang-Diaz says the project is unlikely to advance further without a NASA-funded SAA successor, one the company would prefer to structure like the 2005 Commercial Orbital Transportation Services initiative that spawned Falcon 9/Dragon and Orbital Sciences' Antares/Cygnus ISS resupply services." - June 2014, Aviation WeekApparently they need about $11 million.So sad! NASA is wasting billions of dollars on SLS without a mission but can't find $11 million for something that could be truly useful for BEO exploration.
The solar arrays of such scale need a solid funded program to proceed - like NASA's SEP exploration concepts which are floating around in the ether at the moment and have an uncertain future.
A Megaflex that produces hundreds of kilowatts of power?
Quote from: MATTBLAK on 12/02/2014 05:15 amA Megaflex that produces hundreds of kilowatts of power?Both MegaFlex and Mega-ROSA teams are aiming for a +300 kW system. Mega-ROSA can allegedly be scaled to a several MW system. The ISS solar arrays apparently generate roughly 110 kW.
Quote from: manboy on 12/02/2014 07:43 amQuote from: MATTBLAK on 12/02/2014 05:15 amA Megaflex that produces hundreds of kilowatts of power?Both MegaFlex and Mega-ROSA teams are aiming for a +300 kW system. Mega-ROSA can allegedly be scaled to a several MW system. The ISS solar arrays apparently generate roughly 110 kW.IMHO it was 60KW each of 4 sets
Slightly off topic... Dumb question; Assuming similar sized liquid based solar panels, whould it be possible to heat a reaction mass fluid directly to the point of giving a thrust level similar to that of an Ion or Vasmir drive, using the same amount of fuel, without the electronic boost?