Science!

A team at the University of Southampton is testing a new propulsion system which would allow metals found on comets and moons to be harvested in order to propel a spacecraft indefinitely.

Most current rocket propulsion systems for spacecraft that have left Earth's atmosphere use rare gas phase fuels such as xenon or krypton, which are easy to supply on Earth but difficult to get in space.

But using metals a spacecraft could harvest along its journey "opens a new way to explore planets and space," lead scientist Dr Minkwan Kim told Sky News.

"It can actually go far into deep space and operate for many years."

The new thrusters can burn metals which are relatively abundant in space, such as iron, aluminium and copper, said Dr Kim, who created a plasma thruster design for the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched last year.

"That gives us a new strategy to travel through deep space," he added.…….

https://news.sky.com/story/deep-spa...made-possible-by-new-rocket-thruster-13222988