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

submitted 3 days ago by RegularJoe@lemmy.world to c/science@lemmy.world

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[–] Bimfred@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days 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 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

And far more efficient than chemical propulsion.

[–] Bimfred@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days 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 2 days ago

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