5 thoughts on “NASA’s Colloidal Thruster.

  1. Uncle Al

    Inkjet heads don’t cost a $bazillion each and eject droplets at a foot/sec-dollar velocity. Where is your sense of bureaucracy? Grab a gallium or bismuth liquid metal field ion emitter off the shelf. The tech is at least 30 years old, but have faith that NASA can go FUBAR for 100X the nominal cost.

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  2. gaussling Post author

    30 year old technology is just about right for man-rated NASA vehicles. What struck me was the fact that the system really doesn’t take much advantage of the V^2 term in KE=1/2 MV^2. They might as well take a syringe pump into space and use that for microNewton thrust.

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