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Spaceship thruster technology fueled by any type of metal could fly 'indefinitely' (www.earth.com)

submitted 1 month ago by Lugh to c/futurology

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[–] Eheran@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

So the metal is not the actual fuel but just the propellant? And you still need all the frigging energy to actually produce thrust? How is this different from randomly gathering water and producing H2 and O2 with the same energy source? What an absurd headline.

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago

Yeah, the headline and article aren't great, and conflates fuel and propellant, but the technology is reasonable.

How is this different from randomly gathering water and producing H2 and O2 with the same energy source?

Hydrogen is actually kind of scarce in the inner solar system, so metal ion thrusters would be be useful for low-thrust applications.