The latest "NASA Tech Briefs" detailed a new use for coaxial cable.
If you place an extremely high voltage across an unterminated length of
rigid coaxial cable, plasma is generated at the end of the coax, between
the inner and outer conductors. The ions generated are repulsed from the
end of the coax -- and this can be used for a low-power thruster that
requires no fuel, just sufficient electricity to strike an arc.
The resulting thruster is useful until the coax is completely burned away.
If the spacecraft can be retrieved, the thruster can be replaced.
And in space, electricity is as cheap as solar panels in orbit.
Hmm, I used to know some CBers who did some pioneering research along these
lines in the 1970s.
Jim N6OTQ
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