Spacecrafts powered by thunder

Posted on: Sep. 20th, 2004 || Source: newscientist.com | E-mail Article | Print Article

Thunderous sound waves could one day propel spacecraft to the edge of the solar system, say engineers who have developed a new type of acoustic engine.

Current long-range spacecraft - like the US-European Cassini probe now orbiting Saturn - roam too far from the Sun to use solar power so instead carry plutonium bricks to fuel their engines. As the radioactive plutonium decays, it generates heat that produces an electric current between two different types of metal.

This system uses no moving parts - an advantage since these can fail - but the bricks are large, heavy, and difficult to produce. And these engines yield efficiencies of just 7%.

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