- #1
Maximilien
- 5
- 0
One of the biggest problems with launching things into space is that fuel weighs a lot. With conventional rocketry, mass of fuel per unit of stored energy is high enough that it requires huge rockets to lift even a couple of tons into orbit.
Electrons are very light, and can be used to store up potential energy, so they outwardly seem like a decent candidate for propulsion fuel. In fact, if you could somehow cram 2 nanograms (thats about 2*10^19 electrons) into a ball of radius 1 metre, you would have stored up more than enough potential energy to lift a one-ton spacecraft fully out of Earth's gravitational well.
So my kooky idea is this: given that you have this ball of electrons, you remove a little section of whatever it is confining them so that electrons start whizzing out from that opening, generating thrust. I call it an electron balloon rocket because it looks the same as when you blow up a balloon and then release it without tying the end off: the air comes whooshing out the end and the balloon flies around like a rocket.
My question is whether it is possible to confine so much charge (and more importantly, contain such a huge electric field) in one place. Would something like a Penning trap work? Could it be done with electrical insulators?
Electrons are very light, and can be used to store up potential energy, so they outwardly seem like a decent candidate for propulsion fuel. In fact, if you could somehow cram 2 nanograms (thats about 2*10^19 electrons) into a ball of radius 1 metre, you would have stored up more than enough potential energy to lift a one-ton spacecraft fully out of Earth's gravitational well.
So my kooky idea is this: given that you have this ball of electrons, you remove a little section of whatever it is confining them so that electrons start whizzing out from that opening, generating thrust. I call it an electron balloon rocket because it looks the same as when you blow up a balloon and then release it without tying the end off: the air comes whooshing out the end and the balloon flies around like a rocket.
My question is whether it is possible to confine so much charge (and more importantly, contain such a huge electric field) in one place. Would something like a Penning trap work? Could it be done with electrical insulators?