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An in-space propulsion company just raised a staggering amount of money (arstechnica.com)

submitted 1 week ago by RegularJoe@lemmy.world to c/science@lemmy.world

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[–] Bimfred@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Ion and plasma drives. They're electric and work very well. All the thrust of a hefty fart, but high specific impulse allows them to burn for a long time, so they're great for maneuvering in the vacuum.

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

And far more efficient than chemical propulsion.

[–] Bimfred@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

But exactly because of that, they don't have yeet. Long periods of low thrust are great for long duration missions, like satellites, stations and interplanetary probes, awful for a TLI burn.

[–] i_love_FFT@jlai.lu 3 points 1 week ago

Also, is a bit more complicated to use in kerbal, because the manoeuvring node expects strong instantaneous impulse.