[ExI] Nanorockets was Re: The Nanogirl News~

[Jeff Davis]

Gina, in her Nanogirl News, provided this teaser and link:

Nanorockets - the ultimate baby boosters? Brian Gilchrists.  design
for a rocket ship sounds like a bad joke. For a start, its engine is
about the size of a single bacterium. And for thrust it relies on the
equivalent of chucking microscopic beer cans out of the spacecraft's
rear window. Gilchrist, an electrical engineer at the University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor, is not joking though. He proposes to harness the
latest nanotechnology to create an engine that will make its way
across the solar system by firing out minute metal particles like so
much nano-sized grapeshot. (New Scientist 3.24.07)
http://space.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg19325961.500&feedId=fundamentals_rss20

However, the link is to an article only available by subscription.  Phooey!

Since I'm jazzed by this exciting new propulsion technology, I googled
up "nanoparticle field-emission thrusters Gilchrist", and came up with
the following beefier tasty bits:

Nanoparticle Electric Propulsion for Space Exploration

http://nanoarchitecture.net/file_download/6

and

Scalable Flat-Panel Nanoparticle Propulsion Technology for Space
Exploration in the 21st Century
http://www.niac.usra.edu/files/library/meetings/fellows/mar06/1093Gilchrist.pdf

Enjoy.

Best, Jeff Davis

   "Everything's hard till you know how to do it."
                           Ray Charles