Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

-Major-Arcana- OP t1_ja95wn6 wrote

Reply to comment by Sir-Realz in Could the international space station be repurposed as an interplanetary vessel, a La For All Mankind? by -Major-Arcana-

Don’t ion thrusters deliver weak but long thrust?

1

Dr_Catfish t1_ja96v23 wrote

Ion thrusters exist, sure, but their thrust is so minimal I doubt you'd be able to overcome Earth's gravity in any reasonable time, if at all.

1

Sir-Realz t1_ja99bvf wrote

I would propose hyperbolic booster fired in stages and then a fission thruster to do the heavy lifting once the station was a comfortable distance from earth for the radioactive exhaust not to radiate the entire planet. Ion may have a future but would probably require a fission reactor to power it anyway. but I don't think they have even tested them in space yet. One was supposed to ride on the artimis launch but failed.

1