Science_Illustrated_Australia_-_Issue70_2019

AEROSPACE A steam-powered rocket engine – it

sounds like an idea from Jules Verne or H.G. Wells, but it

is new, and real! Scientists from the University of Central

Florida working with the private aerospace company

Honeybee Robotics have developed the engine, which

might allow a space probe to jump from world to world

in the Solar System without ever running out of fuel.

The latest research indicates that water exists almost

everywhere – not only on planets and moons, but also on

small objects such as asteroids. In most places water

exists in the form of ice, so the space probe must heat it.

This happens by the probe drilling into the surface using

hollow drills, the contents of which can then be heated

by means of energy from the probe’s solar panels.

Once the water evaporates and enters the probe itself,

it condenses again and is stored in the fuel tank. When

the probe is ready to move on and leave the asteroid, the

water is re-heated to create steam and deliver thrust

through a rocket nozzle. In this way, the probe can fly

from asteroid to asteroid, picking up fresh fuel as it goes.

On larger worlds such as the Earth and Mars, the

higher gravity will require more thrust to achieve take

off, but scientists expect that the steam engine can be

made strong enough to escape asteroids and satellite

bodies, even the Moon and Mercury. The scientists have

successfully tested a prototype in a vacuum chamber,

managing to drill into frozen soil, liberate water as

vapour and condense it again. The steam engine was

also tested, allowing the probe to take off.

Steam probe finds fuel anywhere

A new space probe takes off from asteroids by

venting steam through its nozzles. It finds

the ‘fuel’ in the form of water or ice

on suitable asteroids or other bodies.

SOLAR CELLS

GENERATE ENERGY

1 The probe needs energy to be able to

drill for water, so it is

equipped with solar panels.

WATER TANK

CONDENSER

NOZZLES

DRILL

Steam-powered space probe to

jump through the Solar System

Scientists leverage old technology to make one of their major dreams come true:

a space probe that might find fuel anywhere and so never exhaust its power supplies.

WATER RELEASED AS VAPOUR

4 The probe heats the

material with

energy from its solar

panels. The water

evaporates, rising

up through the drill.

MINERALS FILL THE DRILL

3 The drill is hollow,

so it becomes

filled with the

material located

right beneath

the surface.

DRILL PENETRATES SURFACE

2 The probe’s drill may only

need to dig a few

centimetres to find

water – either in

the shape of ice or

bound in minerals.

Drill Heating element

Minerals Vapour

ENGINE

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