Power & Propulsion

NASA's Game Changing Development Program is developing new batteries, fuel cells and solar electric propulsion systems to move man and machine through space.

[@GiesbertNijhuis]

Thanks for this quality video. Makes me wanna work at NASA!

[@luisvalencia9180]

Excellent video. Thanks!!

[@skyebell07]

Id trade in my Naval career for any tour of deep space travel. This is one thing in my life I am envious with our younger generations. To see how far we exceed in deep space travel in 100 to 1k years is so captivating. Nope I am not a treky fan lol. Awesome vid btw ty.

[@nickchadwick9497]

if the tech of a solar array can be adapted into a "fabric" then you can have a larger surface area and also easy to have an automated deployment once deployed in space

[@doublenum]

This is fantastic

[@neilstahl8117]

Sound effects in space? Come on NASA!

[@NASAXrocks]

Agreed, but it does add a bit of excitement. Kubrick would certainly be disappointed.

[@5nefarious]

Why u no have moar views? Keep up the good work! These videos are awesome.

[@TheMrR9]

why don't you have more**

[@5nefarious]

Thanks...

[@NASAXrocks]

Thanks for the kind comment. We have many other channels where are programs are viewed. YT is just one. You can catch us on DIRECTV and Hulu as well.

[@fridgemagnett]

Origami could be useful with the folding and unfolding of the solar arays.

[@MrSparker95]

Wow, cubesat propulstion. That's going to be great.

[@grd55555]

awesome!

[@thevancouverguy]

anyone know what the device featured just after the 4 minute mark is? it is also the same device used as the thumbnail for the video. id assume a fuel cell based on the context, but anyone know specifically what it is so i can go read more about it

[@karmakarnaren012]

this thruster can change the future :)

[@mohammednowsath7723]

Awesome

[@OldGamerNoob]

Now, in pure efficiency, I wonder how a fuel cell attached to an ion engine compares to directly using the fuel as a propellant.

[@peterzpictstube]

What about a nuclear device to provide industrial scale power to provide serious propulsion and electromagnetic radiation shielding?

[@christopherthumm7861]

And you guys could save weight by taking your permanent magnets and slapping them together in opposite polarity in the to make them weigh less

[@sergionavarro2500]

nasa x you should use gold it's a super conductor

[@losbellosa]

You know my propulsion does KN at early dev times and promises MN/GNewtons. Whats the holdup?

[@predatorez77]

at what distance from the sun would this SEP tech be inneficient? :o

[@cooperman7787]

Momentum propulsion would be a game changer.

[@Prof.Megamind.thinks.about.it.]

If you mean reactionless-drive propulsion , read Quora thread : Is a Reactionless Drive possible ? There's always a trick ! D.H.

[@reggieomnifarious9898]

with prophene,creation. couldn't better transformable 4d solar panels be created powering bigger thrusters or more thrusters using lighter materials??

[@cynthiaayers7696]

If we could just find a way to use neutrinos to keep a battery system charged.?

[@beaconrider]

The only problem I see with this solar electrical power is that once you are past Mars' orbit, the output from your solar array is going to be diminished. So how far out can it get before it runs out of juice? Wouldn't a small reactor be a better idea?

[@innovator1998]

Great video full of info !!! It got me thinking though about long distance space travel in the future and just how any satellite or spacecraft will receive power from the sun when the sun will be so far away ... i doubt we'll ever be able to attain any kind of power from our nearest sun (star) from here even in a microvolt range

[@ludwigharisuo6261]

I know that NASA is intrested in the VASIMR engine and the fusion drive. But when are they going to send those to space? Both of them are way more powerful than a chemical rock and also uses way less fuel. A mix between them could cut the Mars trip down to, I don't know a week maybe.

[@NASAXrocks]

VASIMR is still being tested and is indeed a possibility for propulsion in the future. It will indeed cut travel time significantly. Here's a clip we did on a past series in VASIMR. Go to 14:08 kzbin.info/www/bejne/mJypnJxqiNKhrrc

[@ludwigharisuo6261]

Wow, whatever I think of NASA has already thought of, a while ago. NASA is really thinking multiple steps ahead at a time. Awesome! Hasn't VASIMR been tested over 10 000 times already? How about making so the plasma is fusing right when it's leaving the engine so you get both the plasma and the fusion power? Oh, NASA has already thought about it...

[@thomasdillon6838]

T.I.E. propulsion. Where did I see that? It must have been a long time ago somewhere far far away. Oh well, it'll come to me later.

[@for_all_those3611]

so 1980's, you can make a perpetual generator using a direct drive wind turbine, by taking the blades off and replacing them with a DC electric motor and having a DC loop back from the turbines dynamo the motor is connected to, while the rest of the power the dynamo is generating goes off to power a main grid, which makes them 99.96% efficient, then you generate 0.04% of the power the motor is using from the heat of the dynamo, so direct drive turbines run at 20RPM maximum and can generate upto 10MW every hour, permanent magnets are banned in america so they don't have direct drive turbines because america needs all the money they can get from fossil fuel

[@leavethisemptier]

21:20 the secret fuel is peanuts. Possibly just scientist fuel.

[@venusreena2532]

so many potential fuels

[@Kanti12311]

Since you push your craft forward and won't loose speed, can't you just put a generator inside your craft and once you're out in space have the ion drive push that generator to create a rotating movement? Have a generator with a permanent magnet with a voltage regulator on the craft to put out the KWA you want. use the solar panel to input DC voltage for the exciter field. just my idea, I'm not space expert so I don't know how current would react in space.

[@TruAnRksT]

+Kanti123 Ion drives have very little "push" they work over time to slowly accelerate a device to high speeds. Asking if you could use the output to drive a generator is like asking to drive a windmill with a flashlight. In such a craft, or even an EM drive craft a full scale self contained nuclear reactor would be required to produce power.

[@psycronizer]

+Kanti123 you forget that when you have a coil or wire extracting electrical energy from a magnetic field a reverse field is induced...so it can't just run on momentum alone, you still need some form of rotation energy...

[@JA238979]

Any question is a good one, in my opinion! Solar energy is not viable when you get far from stars, but harnessing the power of matter and space would open new possibilities.

[@starenderl-1147]

These solar panels are not know NASA Phoenix Lander had solar panels that were similar in design and also some satellites to

[@TRUpachucos]

Why don't they use centrifugal propulsion powered by electric motors...in space this would move the crafts very fast with little power.

[@jimmypiaz1963]

I have a question / idea about ion drive systems. I've searched for the answer but I don't seem to be having any luck. Would anyone happen to have the email address of a physics professor or aerospace engineer that might answer couple of questions

[@learningchemistryeasily8618]

jimmypiaz1963 Dr. John Brandenburg, Plasma Physicist

[@christopherthumm7861]

Why don't you guys use RF technology that Nikola Tesla invented the 1900 and then utilize the fact that you're out in space where there's a vacuum increase plasma through a customized magnetron or cavitron

[@marcobagnaresi3836]

Nice video. Can't believe there is so much satellite garbage in space ...

[@GVALNIER]

cold be a future. space garbage colector

[@NASAXrocks]

Keep your head down!

[@Thermospecialist]

Solar electric propulsion is at very low power and therefore it woudn't shorten the time to travel to say Mars, can even take longer time than with chemical rockets, likely does IMO. For robotic spaceflight it wouldn't matter much, plenty of time available, while needing far less propulsion mass as the important thing. For manned spaceflight on the contrary, long traveling time is a major problem. Nuclear electric propulsion has far greater power, but the problem there is temperature control. Radiators are the only way to cool off waste heat and so their size sets the limit for nuclear power. Nonetheless, it would shorten traveling time, IF a few hundred kW could be dissipated. I think that is about the upper limit, no way into multi-MW propulsion, unless we find a method to convert nuclear power directly into electricity, reducing waste heat to a minimum and provided the engine itself doesn't get hot.

[@TruAnRksT]

+Thermospecialist >>Radiators are the only way to cool off waste heat and so their size sets the limit for nuclear power.

[@cynthiaayers7696]

If there's no medium in space to carry the heat away then why does the Earth get colder the further away from the Sun that it is?

[@JT_Dudeman4250]

You dont need any medium for heat to transfer into. Heat is literally light. Although it is higher wavelength and you can't see it, it works the same way, it radiates hence the name radiator lol

[@ashtonbugz1023]

newtons 3rd law use for rockets.

[@questfortruth9239]

lol 10:04 still can't get past low earth orbit either lol fail much