Stephen Hawking was a genius who, beyond developing a theory about black holes that has been proven, made several predictions that today serve us to decipher the mobility of the future. One of them has just materialized in the first engine that does not run on liquid, solid or gaseous fuels. What does this mean? It means not EVs, FCEVs or PHEVs, but something even better that neither Tesla, Toyota, nor BYD know about and that could beat any known speed and efficiency record.
Neither hydrogen nor electric: This engine runs on the fourth state of matter
Self in Howe Industries has recently shot to fame with the release of its new product, referred to as the plasma engine for space exploration, notable for space travel and more specifically Mars exploration. The plasma engine invented by Howe Industries is to be used in the fast transports to Mars, with the prospect of a journey taking as little as two months.
This is a massive upgrade from the chemical propulsion systems mainly used today, and it may take as long as six months to get to the Red Planet. The engine is a pulsed plasma thruster based on the electric propellant to create highly charged plasma that moves at high speed and ejects out to generate force.
Its impact can be seen with Howe Industries’ plasma engine: the thrust-to-weight ratio is notable. Spacecraft propelled with the help of electric engines can have thrusts similar to those of regular rockets, while at the same time offering a much lighter weight. Preliminary experiments show that a specific impulse beyond 4000s can be possible, which is significantly higher than conventional ones.
Yes, it was a Hawking’s prediction: He had reason, and experts are sure
Future planning and fusion energy: The world gained a brilliant mind and a tolerant public figure with the recent passing of Stephen Hawking, the theoretical physicist, and cosmologist, as well as the author of popular science books. While being interviewed by Time Magazine in late 2010, Hawking repeated his wish to have nuclear fusion as a practical power source in his practice.
What Hawking saw in the fusion of energy was not only in power generation. He only referred to plasma as the fourth state of matter (what has been known for decades), and a hypothetical fuel for rocket propulsion.
Howe Industries has tried with other fuels, but this one is the only one that has succeeded
Currently, Howe Industries has been testing various kinds of propellants on its plasma engine, ranging from the probably preferred hydrogen, ammonia, and even water. This paper reveals the fact that the choice of the propellant also has a significant influence on the properties of an engine.
Hydrogen, for example, has a high value for specific impulses but has issues with storage, while water should be rather easy to acquire and can be mined from extraterrestrial ocean-like bodies. Sophisticated control mechanisms have been installed on the engine, this enables the engine to move and navigate in space.
Due to its capability to provide steady acceleration, it can be used for missions that will require long periods of driving that cannot be supported by traditional propulsion means. Below are some of the possible missions that Howe Industries has in mind concerning plasma engine technology. These include:
- Crewed Missions to Mars: Specifically, it goes to the point of developing a means of transporting astronauts to the surface of Mars in a far, much shorter time than is possible today.
- Asteroid Mining: Efficiency of the engine can also be applied to missions that focus on the asteroids for mining purposes. Such capabilities of getting to remote targets in the shortest time can create new possibilities for mining in space.
- Interplanetary Exploration: Other than Mars, the plasma engine could mean exploration of other planets and moons in our solar system to increase human knowledge.
The creation of the first plasma engine in history could be a step forward in the aerospace industry that, in the medium term, will also be applied to cars. This type of “extreme” fuel has been tested on previous occasions, remember the Ford Nucleon that ended up being a failure but opened the door to develop experimental prototypes. The fourth state of matter could therefore cease to be a theory and become a reality.
