Spacecraft propulsion Spacecraft propulsion Ablative Laser Propulsion or ALP is a form of beam-powered propulsion in which an external pulsed laser is used to burn off a plasma plume from a solid metal propellent, thus producing thrust. The measured specific impulse of small ALP setups is very high at about 5000 s (49 kN·s/kg), and unlike the lightcraft developed by Leik Myrabo which uses air as the propellant, ALP can be used in space. ...more on Wikipedia about "Ablative laser propulsion"
(Aerobrake) Aerobraking is an advanced interplanetary space navigation technique, whereby the velocity vector of a space vehicle is modified by interaction with a target body's atmosphere. The primary effect is dissipation of the vehicle's velocity via drag; however, it is also possible to add a lift component to the vehicle's interaction with the atmosphere in order to effect orbital plane changes or cross-range maneuvers. ...more on Wikipedia about "Aerobrake"
Aerobraking is a technique used by spacecraft in which it uses drag within a planetary atmosphere to reduce its velocity relative to the planet. ...more on Wikipedia about "Aerobraking"
Aerocapture is a technique used to reduce velocity of a spacecraft, arriving at a celestial body with an hyperbolic trajectory, in order to bring it in an orbit with an eccentricity less or equal to 1. It uses the drag created by the atmosphere of the celestial body to decelerate. Only one pass in the atmosphere is required by this technique, by contrast of aerobraking technique. ...more on Wikipedia about "Aerocapture"
The aerospike engine is a type of rocket engine that maintains its efficiency across a wide range of altitudes through the use of an aerospike nozzle. For this reason the nozzle is sometimes referred to as an altitude-compensating nozzle. A vehicle with an aerospike engine uses 25-30% less fuel at low altitudes, where most missions have the greatest need for thrust. Aerospike engines have been studied for a number of years and are the baseline engines for many single stage to orbit ( SSTO) designs. However, no engine is operational. The best aerospike is still only in the testing phase. ...more on Wikipedia about "Aerospike engine"
Air-augmented rockets (also known as rocket-ejector, integral rocket ramjet, ramrocket, ducted rocket or ejector ramjets) use air collected during flight to use as additional working mass, leading to greater effective thrust for any given amount of fuel. They represent a hybrid class of rocket/jet engines, similar to a ramjet, but are able to also operate outside the atmosphere. ...more on Wikipedia about "Air-augmented rocket"
The Alcubierre metric, also known as the Alcubierre drive or warp drive, is a speculative mathematical model of a spacetime exhibiting some features reminiscent of the fictional faster than the speed of light warp drive from Star Trek; hence the name. The Alcubierre Drive is often called a 'solution' of Einstein's field equations in general relativity, but this is inaccurate; see Alcubierre metric. ...more on Wikipedia about "Alcubierre drive"
An antimatter photonic drive is a hypotetical starship propulsion system. It is very close as concept to nuclear photonic rocket, but uses annihilation as a source of gamma rays. ...more on Wikipedia about "Antimatter photonic drive"
An antimatter rocket is a proposed type of rocket that uses antimatter as its power source. There are a number of possible designs. In one, antimatter would be injected into a target of normal matter and the resulting reaction products (mostly charged particles) would be vented through a magnetic nozzle, providing thrust. A more conventional approach would be to inject the antimatter into a tungsten block, producing heat, which could then be used to either directly heat a propellant (similar to how a nuclear thermal rocket operates), or generate electricity to run some other propulsion mechanism. Finally, a nuclear photonic rocket involves heating up such a tungsten block or other material so it emits light - a curved mirror would then reflect the photons backwards and thus accelerate the spacecraft forwards. ...more on Wikipedia about "Antimatter rocket"
Arcjets are a form of electric propulsion, whereby an electrical ...more on Wikipedia about "Arcjet rocket"
In the context of spacecraft, attitude control is control of the angular position and rotation of the spacecraft, either relative to the object that it is orbiting, or relative to the celestial sphere. ...more on Wikipedia about "Attitude control"
Beam-powered propulsion is a class of spacecraft propulsion mechanisms that use energy beamed to the spacecraft from a remote power plant. ...more on Wikipedia about "Beam-powered propulsion"
In astronautics and aerospace engineering, the Bi-elliptic transfer is an orbital maneuver that moves a spacecraft from one orbit to another and may, in certain situations require less delta-v then a Hohmann transfer. ...more on Wikipedia about "Bi-elliptic transfer"
Big Dumb Boosters (BDB) are a general class of launch vehicle built around the idea that it is cheaper to build and operate a large, strong, heavy rocket of simple design than it is to build a smaller, lighter, more cleverly-designed one. Even though the large booster is less efficient, its total cost of operation is cheaper because it is easier to build, operate and maintain. ...more on Wikipedia about "Big dumb booster" Can you feel it? www.shortopedia.com.
A bipropellant rocket is a rocket that uses separate liquid fuel and oxidizer propellants. In contrast, solid rockets have oxidizer pre-mixed into the matrix of the propellant, and hybrid rockets use solid propellants with a liquid or gaseous oxidizer. Because they permit precise mixture control, bipropellant systems are often more efficient than monopropellant systems, but they tend to be more complicated because of the extra hardware components needed to make sure the right amount of fuel gets mixed with the right amount of oxidizer, known as the mixture ratio. ...more on Wikipedia about "Bipropellant rocket"
The Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Program is a research program established in 1996 by NASA to develop revolutionary methods of spacecraft propulsion that, while they may be possible in the future, require breakthroughs in physics before they could be implemented, which may be seen as a sign of wishful thinking. Some examples include the Diametric drive, the Pitch drive, the Bias drive, the Alcubierre drive, the Disjunction drive, and the Differential sail. The program was discontinued in 2002. ...more on Wikipedia about "Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Program"
The Bussard ramjet method of spacecraft propulsion was proposed in 1960 by the physicist Robert W. Bussard and popularized by Carl Sagan in the television series and subsequent book Cosmos as a variant of a fusion rocket capable of fast interstellar spaceflight. It would use a large scoop (on the order of miles in diameter) to compress hydrogen from the interstellar medium and fuse it. This mass would then form the exhaust of a rocket to accelerate the ramjet. ...more on Wikipedia about "Bussard ramjet"
In general physics, delta-v is simply the change in velocity. ...more on Wikipedia about "Delta-v"
Delta-v budget (or velocity change budget) is a term used in astrodynamics and aerospace industry for velocity change (or delta-v) requirements for the various propulsive tasks and orbital maneuvers over phases of the space mission. ...more on Wikipedia about "Delta-v budget"
Dual mode propulsion systems combine the high efficiency of bipropellant rockets with the reliability and simplicity of monopropellant rockets. Dual mode systems are either hydrazine/N2O4, or MMH/ hydrogen peroxide (the former is much more common). Typically, this system works as follows: During the initial high- impulse orbit-raising maneuvers, the system operates in a bipropellant fashion, providing high thrust at high efficiency; when it arrives on orbit, it closes off either the fuel or oxidizer, and conducts the remainder of its mission in a simple, predictable monopropellant ...more on Wikipedia about "Dual mode propulsion rocket"
The Electrodeless Plasma Thruster is a spacecraft propulsion engine. It was created by Mr. Gregory Emsellem based on technology developed by French Atomic Energy Commission scientist Dr. Terenzio Consoli, for high speed plasma beam production. ...more on Wikipedia about "Electrodeless plasma thruster" Simply http://www.shortopedia.com!
EHD thruster stands for electrohydrodynamic thruster. This is the general and most appropriate term used for high voltage propulsion devices. EHD thrusters, unlike the related ion thruster family, do not need to carry their own gas supply, although they still need to carry their own electrical power source or generator. Also, unlike related propulsion devices, they need the atmosphere for their operation and cannot operate in space or vacuum. ...more on Wikipedia about "Electrohydrodynamic thruster"
The electrostatic ion thruster is a kind of design for ion thrusters (a kind of highly-efficient low-thrust spacecraft propulsion running on electrical power). These designs use high voltage electrodes in order to accelerate ions with electrostatic forces. A variant of the duoplasmatron, they were initially developed by Harold R. Kaufman at NASA in the early 1960s, but they were rarely used before the late 1990s. NASA has produced practical electrostatic ion thrusters, notably the NSTAR engine that was used successfully on Deep Space 1. Hughes Aircraft Company has developed the XIPS (Xenon Ion Propulsion System) for performing station keeping on geosynchronous satellites. NASA is currently working on a 20-50 kW electrostatic ion thruster called HiPEP which will have higher efficiency, specific impulse, and lifetime than NSTAR. ...more on Wikipedia about "Electrostatic ion thruster"
In fluid dynamics, the enstrophy can be described as the integral of the square of the vorticity given a velocity field as, ...more on Wikipedia about "Enstrophy"
The expander cycle is a power cycle of a bipropellant rocket engine meant to improve the efficiency of fuel delivery. ...more on Wikipedia about "Expander cycle (rocket)"
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