On Thu, Jul 23, 2015 at 8:22 PM, Richard Aiken <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:On Thu, Jul 23, 2015 at 8:14 PM, Richard Aiken <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:This article says hydrogen fuel provides thrust after passage through an exchanger heated by the externally-generated microwaves. The result craft would simply "glide back to the launch pad, refuel, and will be ready for its next flight."And googling further . . .Wikipedia says that such a microwave powered exchanger was proposed as a concept in 2001.So maybe the "breakthrough" is that they've actually made it work? At least in the lab?Although . . . one has to wonder why they used helium in the tests rather than hydrogen, if the later is the fuel they're aiming at actually using for a craft.Safety concerns, perhaps? Hydrogen being a tad explosive and all?--Richard Aiken
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