• Question: How miniaturized is the spaceship you are building? Who/what are you building it for?

    Asked by themaxassin to Charlie on 15 Mar 2011.
    • Photo: Charlie Ryan

      Charlie Ryan answered on 15 Mar 2011:

      hi thanks very much for your question!
      The size of the spacecraft propulsion device i’m testing is made for spacecraft called cubsats – i.e. cube shaped satellites. These are really tiny – 10*10*10cm and way about 1kg! Most spacecraft about the size of a small car!
      We are building the thrusters for anyone in aprticular or a certin experiment we want to use. There’s simply a gap in the market! These cubesats have become extremely popular recently, because they are so cheap (~£3 million, comapared to hundreds of million for bigger spacecraft). But no current thrusters will fit onto them, so they are stuck in low orbits around earth with little control. Our thrusters will hopefully allow them to go to the moon!!

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