future propulsion system?
111919
Fuel-burning action-reaction is here to stay for a long time.  We don't know enough about gravity and space-time to manipulate it.
196152
Terminal velocity. Next!
574734
Something very close to it already exists:  Ion drive.  This uses charged xenon particles as its propellant.  The acceleration is very low, but it is much more efficient than chemical rockets.  NASA has already put it to practical use with their Deep Space 1 probe, and will use it again with their Helium 3 probe.\n\nOf course, that's still a mass-reaction drive.  A rather exotic one, but still...\n\nOne way of using light for propulsion is with a "solar sail," which The Planetary Society tried to test with its Cosmos-1 mission.  Unfortunately, the probe was lost in a launch failure.  They want to try again, though; you might want to write to them about your idea.
1047344
Solar Sails.\n\nA spacecraft would deploy a huge sail to capture the solar 'wind', the constant stream of solar particles. A rather slow but economical method to move beyond Earth....
117099
Space shuttle gains huge potential and kinetic energy as it goes up and orbits earth. This energy needs to be given out as it comes down. This happens in form of heat. Heat is generated in the process of slowing down the craft. \n\nIf we want to reduce the speed by means of spending energy, while it coes down we need to send up even larger amount of fuel to equilize gravity as it comes down. This will result in very bad design.\n\nMay be with nuclear powered plasma engines oe day we shall be able to bring the craft slowly. But that will not reduce the risk. The plasma wlll then be inside the vehicle, rather than outside of it. So we got to learn the art of handling super hot gases either way.
267083
I suppose that depends upon how mainstream the application.\n\n“Traditional pulsejet engines are probably not best suited for use in ultra-light airplanes.\nThey consume enormous amounts of fuel (weight), run red-hot, such that any fabric or other flamable material within several feet of the engine body will likely burst into flame, and are very, very loud with lots of fatigue-inducing vibration.”\n\nHowever kits are readily available:\nThey can be provided in regular reed-valve or valveless versions (note: the valveless versions develop about half the amount of thrust but have no reed valves so will run indefinitely without any kind of maintenance). The valveless and conventional heads can be interchaged freely to convert the engine from one mode to another in just a few minutes. \nModel PJ30i will develop about 15 pounds of thrust and the kit costs $230 ($270 with tailpipe).\n\nAnd it looks like pulsejet dragsters are currently being built.
809424
Small clowns-jk\nA few areas will benefit\nPhysics will see some information on how physics works at such a small scale\n\nMedicine(in the future)- These nano cars could be the model that future nano-bots can be based off of to repair cells at a atomic level, or alter other things in the body like protein production.  kind of like a built in gene therapy. Or deliver drugs when needed\n\nelectronics- I am going out on a limb here but I could say self repairing computers
1173168
Space Transportation System
413898
Yes go to! very good topics to discover about engines http://www.sapiensman.com/topics/topics_3.htm
194906
Ah.. Get back with us if a few years..... lol\nThen we'll KNOW the answer.\n\nBut I would think #3.  Mount a rocket motor on it. It's got a lot of mass to get moving with the other methods not being, today, that efficient.
189154
absolutely.  In the dead of space a vehicle such as the space shuttle could use maneuvering thrusters to completely stop it's self and remain stationary.  Taking that a bit further you can conclude that if the data is mapped properly gravitation forces from heavenly bodies could be automatically counter with the same thrusters.
197354
Not to my knowledge but it is an interesting idea. We know that the solarwind pushes on Earths magnetosphere with tremendous force. A spaceship with a magnetic bubble around it would also experience that force which should yield some thrust. The farther from the sun you get the weaker the thrust gets. It should be easy enough to compensate for this by simply expanding the magnetic bubble. \nSuch articficial magnetospheres will probably become standard for spacecraft destined for very longterm missions in the near future. They may not be able to provide all the thrust the spacecraft needs (you might want to inwards in the solarsytem too...) but it could provide valuable extra protection from highenergy particles for the astronauts inside.\n\nThe other way of magnetic propulsion is MagLev, or magnetic levitation. It is used for highspeed trains here on earth. Such a train on, say, the Moon with its absence of an atmosphere should be able to reach escape velocity (2.4 km/s for the moon) and get launched into space with only the electricity needed to run the MagLev track as a propellant.
1088407
sdtart warming tose engines dude @!!!! u forgot cuise misslis nuclear missles stealth fighters stelath ships border defence misslies soldiers and clone troopers
1076466
Cool, thanks so much for the idea. I believe that the space industry would love it.\n\nI have a few connections with Raytheon (formally Hughs Aircraft) and a few connection within the military. I will take my idea to them and see if I can get it started.
201530
Attach a falcon to the prototype.. Think it will fly high! :-)
137427
satellites.\n\nfor sure
710318
Multiple NASA web sites have the info that you seek.\nGood luck with your project and let me know how it turns out?