/sci/ - Science & Math

>>10624342
>>10624262
>“This result means air-breathing electric propulsion is no longer simply a theory but a tangible, working concept, ready to be developed, to serve one day as the basis of a new class of missions.”

Exciting, so what is the potential, how far can they take this?

I like the idea of satellites scooping up their propellant and staying on orbit longer. What about developing specialized orbital re-boosters that generate their fuel and the fuel to reboost other satellites or space stations via this method?

Also whats the feasibility of using a more advanced/powerful version of these to act in vacuum the way SRB's act on launch? As a kind of booster that accelerates the craft into its final orbit, and then jettisoned, letting the final stage retain all its fuel for a great dV potential for some probe mission out to the outer planets for example, so that it can get there faster.

It feels like this thing can be such a potential game changer, you have a way to generate thrust without requiring extra propellant to be carried, just the thruster itself, but whether that's a significant enough amount of thrust per engine for the kinds of implementations I just mentioned is the question I suppose.