by jm.huffman | Dec 10, 2024 | Uncategorized
So, until about a year ago, I was victim of a misunderstanding that made me very, very confused about how plasmas were made. I had read, in many places, about the designs for ion thrusters and plasma thrusters and VASIMR and even plasma enhanced chemical vapor...
by jm.huffman | Dec 7, 2024 | Uncategorized
Hello Orbital Friends! It’s Friday, so here’s what Orbital Arc was up to the last two weeks (since last Friday was the day after Thanksgiving, and I skipped an update). First, the annealing furnace at Rice is still broken, so lab progress remains stalled....
by jm.huffman | Dec 3, 2024 | Uncategorized
It’s Monday! Let’s talk about specific impulse. Specific impulse (otherwise known as ISP) is to spacecraft what miles-per-gallon is to your old internal combustion engine car. It’s fuel efficiency. ISP is what determines how much push (or, formally,...
by jm.huffman | Nov 23, 2024 | Uncategorized
It’s Friday! Let’s talk through Orbital Arc’s progress this week, with a bit of backtracking about molybdenum. Also, strap in folks – this one gets technical. So, this week I have focused on two things primarily: 1. Evaluating potential ion...
by jm.huffman | Nov 18, 2024 | Uncategorized
Orbital Arc is developing a new type of ion engine. Great, but sounds pretty sci-fi. What is an ion engine, anyway? For that matter, what is an ion? Let’s get back to basics. (NASA test of a Hall Effect Thruster (HET) for Gateway lunar space station; HETs are...
