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'Acceleration without fuel:' Revolutionary superconducting thruster harnesses Earth's magnetic field in 1st orbital test (www.space.com)

submitted 19 hours ago by Delta_V@lemmy.world to c/space@mander.xyz

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..."Once you have super-conducting technology available in space, you can then create very strong magnetic fields and you can use them for various use cases," he said. "You can accelerate things in space very fast or change the trajectory of a satellite completely without fuel."...

"When we go to space, we get hurt by radiation, and these superconducting magnets can create umbrellas of magnetic fields around the spacecraft to protect the interior," said Arshavsky. "So we can shield people in space from that radiation."...

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[–] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Right, but then it's not really "without fuel." It's hopefully less fuel, and if you can run it on solar panels, it would be without resupply, but nuclear power could also provide long-term functionality. As always, the most fuel is spent getting things into orbit.

For me, the exciting bit is the magnetic radiation shielding. If we're going to leave earth behind, radiation shielding is currently a significant missing piece of the puzzle.

[–] Simon_Shitewood@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 hours ago

They're not claiming the launch won't use fuel, just manoeuvring in space, which still solves the problem of getting fuel for manoeuvring while in space. Fuelless launches are a separate issue that other people are working on.