Quote:
Originally Posted by worth
The shuttle program always bugged me because the shuttles are so mind blowingly inefficient it's ridiculous. I guess the shuttle program was really just step 5 in the 100 steps we need to take to conquer our solar system. More efficient ways to space travel are required if we hope to get anywhere. Is ion propulsion the be all end all? I doubt it, but it's another stepping stone. Although, I don't know what propellant they would use, cause I don't think the stuff they use is as readily avaliable as rocket fuel is.
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An ion engine isn't a replacement for the Shuttle.. the thrust from an ion engine is like the weight of a piece of paper on your hand; it's hardly there. So an ion engine couldn't replace the shuttle (or comparable) for lifting stuff into orbit.
Where the ion engine shines is in the relatively flat space between planets; while the thrust is very small, it's constant. And since it's so small, the amount of "propellant" is comparably small too (argon gas in that case). I say "propellant" because in an ion engine the argon gas is simply the mass being thrown out to generate the thrust, the actual energy to accelerate the argon ions comes from solar panels (or a nuclear reactor, or batteries, or whatever).
So the ion engine isn't going to replace chemical rockets any time soon.
The amount of energy required to get into orbit is so staggeringly huge it'll probably always be big an noisy, until we can make a space elevator that is I guess.