New proposed method of space propulsion

[ATMLVE]

I was just undertaking my weekly skim of space.com and stumbled across this article.
http://www.space.com/31063-electric-sail...ation.html

Electric sails! Similar to the well-known solar sail idea in that it uses matter ejected from a star. Except the electric sail uses that funky perpendicular force thing with electrons and whatnot to generate thrust. Article says 20 to 30 AU a year; that's pretty dang fast by today's standards.

Currently, discussion is occurring on whether or not this is even feasible. Some people believe it could be implemented in as early as ten years.

If it is possible, and really could be in use within even a few decades, it would certainly be something of note at least in the early OA timeline wouldn't it? After all, we're still using chemical rockets. I'm not too familiar with the material, but I'm guessing it would become redundant with the introduction of amat drives, so not much change would be needed.

In any case, it at least deserves an article.

[Drashner1]

How is this different from a magsail?

We have magsails used in various applications within the setting already.

More recently, we've added magbeam propulsion into the early timeline (starting in the 2050s CE), although we still need to create an article to go with it.

I suppose this might get used to send a probe a two to the outer solar system or heliopause as the article describes - assuming that the tests don't demonstrate that the tech won't work anyway. Given that this will apparently be tested in the near future, I'd be leery of writing up an article on it before then since, if the test proves the tech unworkable, we would then have to turn around and remove it.

That said, if you want to take a shot at doing a write up on this, feel free.

Todd

[ATMLVE]

How is this different from a magsail?

We have magsails used in various applications within the setting already.

More recently, we've added magbeam propulsion into the early timeline (starting in the 2050s CE), although we still need to create an article to go with it.

I suppose this might get used to send a probe a two to the outer solar system or heliopause as the article describes - assuming that the tests don't demonstrate that the tech won't work anyway. Given that this will apparently be tested in the near future, I'd be leery of writing up an article on it before then since, if the test proves the tech unworkable, we would then have to turn around and remove it.

That said, if you want to take a shot at doing a write up on this, feel free.

Todd

I agree that including it in the near future would be a risky move. And considering magsails and electric sails are basically the same, I imagine the point of the article was more to suggest that they might be around very soon, rather than introduce the idea itself.

[Drashner1]

You could always keep an eye out for developments in this area and, if experiments seem to point to it being feasible, look at creating an article about it at that time.

Todd

[stevebowers]

Electric sails and magsails have different configurations; magsails are generally superconducting loops, while electric sails use multiple radial tethers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_s...and_design
I think electric sails are less efficient, but I can't give a cite right now. They may be useful for transporting small, lightweight payloads around very quickly.