Reply To: General thought on old coal mines.

[zapkitty]

vansig wrote:
Yeah, microwave electrothermal thrusters use a propellant, like water; in space we’d still need a propellant, but this is a jet. i’d prefer to avoid noxious exhaust products, so maybe not raise it to plasma temperature.

Well, for the effect to work only a small portion of the exhaust needs to reach plasma… but it seems this might all be mooted by the invention of the plasma window.

Not only can this “force field” contain a vacuum against atmosphere at the cost of a few kilowatts while allowing a particle beam to exit that vacuum without having to vent the system… but it can focus an ion beam that happens to pass through it.

And alpha particles don’t travel far in atmosphere before being stopped.

vansig wrote:
of course there’s science to do, to make this go. i dont have all the answers, but tuning and focusing the beam seems to be the key

Just remember that the aloha beam is hoped to be used to recharge the caps with some juice left over.

If that balance is to be altered then the energy to recharge the caps must come from somewhere else… like an onion. Which might be workable, just something else to keep in mind.