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'Acceleration without fuel:' Revolutionary superconducting thruster harnesses Earth's magnetic field in 1st orbital test (www.space.com)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/space@mander.xyz
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..."Once you have super-conducting technology available in space, you can then create very strong magnetic fields and you can use them for various use cases," he said. "You can accelerate things in space very fast or change the trajectory of a satellite completely without fuel."...

"When we go to space, we get hurt by radiation, and these superconducting magnets can create umbrellas of magnetic fields around the spacecraft to protect the interior," said Arshavsky. "So we can shield people in space from that radiation."...

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[–] 9 points 3 months ago (2 children)

this is for applying torque to the spacecraft, not generating thrust. these are just magnetorquers, which have been a thing for a while. the only thing new here is that they use superconducting magnets, which i assume just means they can more efficiently create magnetic fields. its cool but its not really a game changing development, more a refinement on an existing technology. science journalism has to make everything sexy for clicks though...

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 child)

    That's true for older magnetorquers, because the Earth's magnetic field is smooth enough that the difference between field strength at the top and bottom of the satellite is insignificant.

    With superconductors you can scale up the magnetic field strength enough to get a usable net linear force.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago

    wtf are you talking about... linear and angular momentum are always conserved. the only way to get thrust is to expend mass. a magnetorquer exchanges angular momentum with the earth via its magnetic field. it cant be used to exchange linear momentum.

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