What is Digg?196 Comments
- BigManOnCampus, on 04/13/2009, -1/+161Except, NASA has been using Ion drives since at least 1998.
http://nmp.nasa.gov/ds1/ - Bloodwine, on 04/13/2009, -2/+160Ion drives are more of a Star Wars thing, not Star Trek.
TIE fighter = [T]win [I]on [E]ngine - BossKey, on 04/13/2009, -0/+98Imagine what could be done with twin ion engines.
- inactive, on 04/13/2009, -2/+78FINALLY! I've always wondered why they were called that.
- MrFurious2k, on 04/13/2009, -2/+75Uh... only very low speed maneuvers were handled by thrusters in Star Trek. Anything that required more speed went to "Impulse." For example, inside of space dock they used thrusters but once outside they used their impulse drive. FTL was obviously handled by warp drive. I think our poster isn't really familiar with the ST universe.
- UselessTrivia, on 04/13/2009, -2/+63They also look kinda like bow ties.
- Jektal, on 04/13/2009, -0/+60And I thought we launched a deep-space probe a couple years back powered by an Ion drive?
- Ragarnok, on 04/13/2009, -1/+60Actualy the GOCE isn't the first satelite to use Ion drive, Japanese satelites have been experimenting with Ion drive technology for years
- jedicor, on 04/13/2009, -0/+51I'd like to congratulate our poster, AFelsinger. You managed to unite not only Star Trek and Star Wars fans against you, but fans of general scientific knowledge, by posting an inaccurate and rather misleading topic. Good job!
- Misanthrope, on 04/13/2009, -7/+47I think it's time you leave Digg.
- Drahkar, on 04/13/2009, -1/+34Yea, this whole thing is rife with inaccuracies.
- RogerStrong, on 04/13/2009, -0/+30The SERT II (Space Electric Rocket Test II)spacecraft was the first with ion drive, in 1970. This after thousands of hours of ground tests in 1966.
http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/ion/past/70s/sert2.htm
NASA experimented with ion thruster as far back as 1959.
This isn't the real world catching up with Star Trek; it was Star Trek using real-world cutting-edge technology. - offrdbandit, on 04/13/2009, -0/+28Or the science universe, for that matter.
- sipsyrup, on 04/13/2009, -0/+26All Terrain Armored Transport (AT-AT) and All Terrain Scout Transport (AT-ST)
- DaNuKaSAN, on 04/13/2009, -1/+26Yea, fittingly bestowed with the "Deep Space 1" moniker.
It also was the first probe to be able to diagnose itself in case of a malfunction, and attempt to to either rectify or work around the problem. Oh, and it drives itself too. - kpmc, on 04/13/2009, -1/+23NASA? Er no, ESA.
- plaguepony, on 04/13/2009, -1/+23"Deep Space One" was the first Ion engine powered spacecraft. It was an American vessel back in the late 90s.
- armakaryk, on 04/13/2009, -8/+28indeed, new horizons heading for pluto and the kuiper belt, just passed jupiter not too long ago.
- MacSuxWindozSux, on 04/13/2009, -2/+20Star Trek has ion drives, they're considered obsolete by hundreds of years.
The show has a way of trivializing or hiding the true performance of some of it's technology when it focuses on it's plot. In one of the films they leave orbit at "impulse speeds" and there's a shot of a monitor plotting their position over a planet and they whip away like lightning.
Star Wars is even worse since they appear to travel tens of thousands of light years in days or weeks, and the films hide any and all measure of time taken. - PixelMagic, on 04/13/2009, -0/+18Warp Drive > Ion Drive
- compgeek, on 04/13/2009, -2/+20Dugg up for Star Wars reference in a Star Trek thread.
- venom8599, on 04/13/2009, -1/+19They probably used it because ion drives (or engines) were used in Star Wars (TIE fighter = Twin Ion Engine fighter).
- ViscidGobs, on 04/13/2009, -2/+19I've got my ion you.
- insanebrain, on 04/13/2009, -3/+20your google broke down ?
- danielazarc, on 11/17/2009, -0/+16Hey, they could have been going ludicrous speed.
- ActionNerd, on 04/13/2009, -1/+17Hah. I bet they used a Star Wars picture just for the attention.
- 4degrees, on 04/13/2009, -0/+15Star Trek indeed thought of the Ion Drives as well, Though they did not use them to maneuver those giant starships, ion engines were not strong enough. They were used, however, for smaller probes and some smaller automates cargo ships.
now i will retire to the nerdery with my fellow nerds and calculators.
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Ion_drive - kpmc, on 04/13/2009, -0/+15For sure. Just pointing out the inaccuracy of the article. GOCE is a European Space Agency mission put together by 41 companies distributed over 13 European countries.
- Harabeck, on 04/13/2009, -1/+16A really hideous space screech.
http://www.tk421.net/gallery/sounds/tie.wav - Amazetbm, on 04/13/2009, -3/+18Dude, you can't be serious.
- sivyr, on 04/13/2009, -0/+14In fact, according to an article of Discover I've read recently (it's the February 2009 issue, I believe), Ion drives have been in workhorse use since the mid-80's for keeping satellites in stable orbits for long periods of time and for minor attitude adjustments.
They're not new technology at all. They're just becoming better now. They just don't get much credit because their maximum thrust is piddly compared to a solid fuel booster (less than 10%), but they operate for very little fuel and thus weight, and can accelerate light spacecraft up to higher velocities than rockets in the long run.
P.S. And for the record Daily Galaxy, the USS Enterprise's "thrusters" glowed pinkish red. Pretty sure they were supposed to be ion drive-ish. Geez, get your sci-fi pop culture right. - Bloodwine, on 04/13/2009, -0/+13Event Horizon > All
... if it worked as intended and didn't send you to an alternate universe that is total chaos
I guess there are the ships in Dune powered by the Spice Navigators that accomplish a similar task. Just depends if you trust your travel to drug addicts. - 4degrees, on 04/13/2009, -1/+13"...thats great! Don't get cocky kid!"
- armakaryk, on 04/13/2009, -1/+13so they talk about star trek, but present a picture from star wars?
- protogenxl, on 04/13/2009, -0/+11Apollo 13 had a problem with the oxygen tanks. The propulsion system used an nitrogen tetroxide oxidizer.
- tgc1, on 04/13/2009, -1/+11Dude, that's seriously awesome. I had no clue why they called 'em that. Any insights on the AT-AT and AT-ST?
Those were some of my favorites. - idontlikeyou2, on 04/13/2009, -0/+10I don't know why the summary make it sound like ion drive is better than what is in star trek. Ion Drive uses ions to build up speed very slowly but efficiently. It doesn't even match up to the impulse drive in star trek
- Dustmuffins, on 04/13/2009, -0/+9It means "you're fired".
- Volath, on 04/13/2009, -1/+10Actually they can go close to or a little faster than the speed of light, depending on the ship. They don't do it though for 2 reasons.
1. Its protocol to not go past 1/4 C unless in extreme circumstances to avoid time dilation as much as possible.
2. It uses WAY more energy than the warp drive after they get up to a certain speed. - Pyrolistical, on 04/13/2009, -0/+9And impulse drive can go at a quarter of the speed of light, or 269 813 212 kph
- tgc1, on 04/13/2009, -1/+10Dude, that's awesome!
- tgc1, on 04/13/2009, -0/+9Because we can't all live on Beer and Hookers. Star Trek is serious business.
- haydentech, on 04/13/2009, -0/+9You turn around and fire it for a month.
- sivyr, on 04/13/2009, -0/+8I think you mean that their acceleration isn't fast enough?
Technically these can accelerate to much higher speeds than conventional rockets, because the rocket's velocity is limited by the speed at which the exhaust is projected from the engines. Chemical reactions only go so fast.
Ion drives accelerate particles out by way of magnetic fields. They project much less fuel per unit of time (resulting in much slower acceleration) but at much higher velocity (enabling significantly higher maximum velocity for the spacecraft).
While it makes sense to launch something into orbit using rockets, because ion drives don't have the guts to beat Earth's gravity, in virtually any case of manned or unmanned travel to extra-planetary locations, ion drives are pretty much the best way to speed the voyage on its way. So get them on their way with good old conventional thrusters, then let then coast on ion drives to save fuel, weight, and ultimately, time. - ivanmarsh, on 04/13/2009, -0/+8Not sure what they're talking about...
Deep Space 1 sets record with ion propulsion system
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/ ... - Shloppy, on 04/14/2009, -0/+8It's one of those things you wonder about when you hear it, then it drops out of your mind until the next time you hear it.
- inactive, on 04/13/2009, -1/+9I'm not a sci-fi fan. lol
- LeeMaple, on 04/13/2009, -0/+8Yes in the series finally of TNG I think they said Warp 13 at one point... It was shameful.
- mdmcgee, on 04/13/2009, -4/+11NASA was using ION engines long before the ESA.
- yatpay, on 04/14/2009, -0/+7@armakaryk: new horizons doesn't use an ion engine...
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