Field-emission electric propulsion
So imagine you have a balloon and you want to blow it up using a straw. You blow air into the straw which then goes into the balloon and inflates it. Now, imagine there's something called an electric field around the balloon. If you somehow made the air particles in the straw hit the electric field around the balloon hard enough, they would shoot out quickly, making the balloon move in the opposite direction!
This is kind of how field-emission electric propulsion works. Instead of air particles, it uses charged particles that are smaller than an atom! These charged particles are called ions. Ions can be made to shoot out of something called an ion emitter by giving them energy with an electric field.
In a spacecraft, these charged particles are shot out of the back of the spaceship, which makes the ship move forward! This kind of propulsion is called an electric propulsion system.
Now, the cool thing about field-emission electric propulsion is that it uses something called carbon nanotubes as the ion emitter. These are super-tiny, strong tubes made of carbon atoms all stuck together. The ions shoot out of these tubes because the electric field is so strong that it can actually pull the ions out of the carbon nanotubes themselves!
So, field-emission electric propulsion is a way to make a spacecraft go by shooting tiny, charged particles out of its back using something called carbon nanotubes. It's like blowing up a balloon by shooting air particles out of a straw, but instead of air particles, we're using ions and instead of a balloon, it's a spacecraft!
This is kind of how field-emission electric propulsion works. Instead of air particles, it uses charged particles that are smaller than an atom! These charged particles are called ions. Ions can be made to shoot out of something called an ion emitter by giving them energy with an electric field.
In a spacecraft, these charged particles are shot out of the back of the spaceship, which makes the ship move forward! This kind of propulsion is called an electric propulsion system.
Now, the cool thing about field-emission electric propulsion is that it uses something called carbon nanotubes as the ion emitter. These are super-tiny, strong tubes made of carbon atoms all stuck together. The ions shoot out of these tubes because the electric field is so strong that it can actually pull the ions out of the carbon nanotubes themselves!
So, field-emission electric propulsion is a way to make a spacecraft go by shooting tiny, charged particles out of its back using something called carbon nanotubes. It's like blowing up a balloon by shooting air particles out of a straw, but instead of air particles, we're using ions and instead of a balloon, it's a spacecraft!