Publications related to Project Orion (nuclear propulsion)

Reconfigurable Drone System for Transportation of Parcels With Variable Mass and Size

Dario Floreano, Fabrizio Schiano, Przemyslaw Mariusz Kornatowski, Leonardo Cencetti

Cargo drones are designed to carry payloads with predefined shape, size, and/or mass. This lack of flexibility requires a fleet of diverse drones tailored to specific cargo dimensions. Here we propose a new reconfigurable drone based on a modular design th ...

2022

Flexural-tensegrity snapping tails for bio-inspired propulsion in fluids

Pedro Miguel Nunes Pereira de Almeida Reis, Claudio Boni

Many aquatic animals propel themselves by flapping their tails. Leveraging a recently proposed snapping cantilever beam based on the concept of flexural tensegrity, we propose a bio-inspired propulsion device. The design comprises a segmental beam with hol ...

ELSEVIER2022

A Simple Body-limb Coordination Model that Mimics Primitive Tetrapod Walking

Auke Ijspeert, Shura Suzuki

The coordination of body and limbs motions contributes to effective propulsion in limed locomotion. However, there is lack of understanding that characterizes the mechanism underlying the body-limb coordination. The aim of this study involves clarifying th ...

IEEE2017

3D T 2-weighted imaging at 7T using dynamic kT-points on single-transmit MRI systems

Rolf Gruetter, José Pedro Rebelo Ferreira Marques, Daniel Gallichan, Kieran O'Brien, Florent Eggenschwiler

OBJECTIVES: For turbo spin echo (TSE) sequences to be useful at ultra-high field, they should ideally employ an RF pulse train compensated for the B 1 + inhomogeneity. Previously, it was shown that a single kT-point pulse designed in the small tip-angle re ...

Springer Verlag2016

Influences of porous reservoir Laplace pressure on emissions from passively fed ionic liquid electrospray sources

Herbert Shea, Daniel George Courtney

Passively fed ionic liquid electrospray sources are capable of efficiently emitting a variety of ion beams with promising applications to spacecraft propulsion and as focused ion beams. Practical devices will require integrated or coupled ionic liquid rese ...

AIP American Institute of Physics2015

Microfabricated Electrospray Thrusters for a Modular Spacecraft Propulsion System

Simon Dandavino

With the growing capabilities of miniature components and systems, scientific and exploration missions making use of small spacecraft (

EPFL2014

Microfabricated electrospray emitter arrays with integrated extractor and accelerator electrodes for the propulsion of small spacecraft

Herbert Shea, Caglar Ataman, Simon Dandavino, Daniel George Courtney, Subha Chakraborty

Microfabricated electrospray thrusters could revolutionize the spacecraft industry by providing efficient propulsion capabilities to micro and nano satellites (1–100 kg). We present the modeling, design, fabrication and characterization of a new generation ...

Iop Publishing Ltd2014

Integrated out-of-plane nanoelectrospray thruster arrays for spacecraft propulsion

Herbert Shea, Renato Krpoun

Nanoelectrosprays, well known for their use in sample injection for the mass spectrometry of large biomolecules, can also be used in other applications such as spacecraft propulsion. The thrust generated by a single electrospray emitter is well below 1 μN, ...

Institute of Physics2009

Micromachined electrospray thrusters for spacecraft propulsion

Renato Krpoun

Micromachining has enabled the downscaling of large, massive and power hungry systems into small batch-produced integrated devices. Recent progress in electrospray thruster technology, in particular the discovery of an ionic emission mode using the ionic l ...

EPFL2009

Investigation of ADS-Type heterogeneities in the MUSE4 critical configuration

Rakesh Chawla, Michaël Plaschy, Gérald Rimpault

The MUSE4 programme of ADS-related integral experiments has recently been completed at the MASURCA facility at Cadarache (France). Investigations have been carried out in a reference critical fast-spectrum configuration and related sub-critical core config ...

Atomic Energy Society of Japan2005