this post was submitted on 05 May 2026
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ok i can see the steam turbine powering onboard electrical but explain me how the fuck you're doing space propulsion and/or warp travel with steam
unless you mean literally just blasting steam like a propellant, Wall-E With the Fire Extinguisher style. in which case you're gonna run outta steam pretty fast
Ion thrusters are an example of electricity used for space propulsion.
In ion thrusters electricity is used to create a magnetic field that accelerate the propellant particles at very high speed. This way the propellant of used much more efficiently.
Edit: I forgot to mention that it's not a concept, it's actively used in a lot of satellites
ooooooh
well that's pretty neat.
So skimming through the wiki article, it sounds like it it's still "throw something out the back" to generate thrust, which is largely the same problem as the Wall-E with a fire extinguisher problem another commenter made.
Ion Thrusters sound significantly more efficient (in terms of velocity change vs fuel), but do I have the right idea on that?
Yes, ion thrusters still use conservation of momentum to generate thrust. They aren't limited by how fast or how hot we can make something explode though, so we can shove way more energy into the stuff they're throwing out the back. They're basically tiny coil/railguns, using electricity to move individual ions really fast.
In terms of efficiency, Ion thrusters are 4 to 40 times better than liquid fueled rockets. The draw back is that ion engines make very little thrust for the mass of the engine.
Yes, just like every new electrical generation method is steam, every new method of propulsion in space is throw something at the back as fast as we can.
The exception being Project Orion. The idea behind project Orion is to constantly drop and explode nuclear bombs behind the spaceship at a rate of 1 bomb per second. The explosion of the bomb would then push the spaceship forward.
At some point in the future, it will be trivial to fold spacetime and tunnel through, which needs electricity to charge capacitors and shit because the fuel is energy. You think space travel will be done with gasoline engines?
I sure hope not, the USA has already done enough damage for terrestrial use gasoline 💀
space ships in the future will photosynthesize, that will createa steady supply of breatheable air
even submarines are runing nuclear reactors
you use the steam to turn a spacetime-fabric-propeller which can gain traction on vacuum itself and propel the ship. simple stuff.