Abstract Based on over sixty years of working in electric propulsion research, a personal memoir attempts to observe the progress from early explorations present successes accomplishing attractive and practical systems. It includes several anecdotal remarks difficulties achieving acceptance for space missions, concludes with notions future. The perspectives offered may be useful new generation ...

The electrification of spacecraft could significantly extend the useful life billion-dollar missions in outer space.

The objective of theoretical, computational and experimental studies outlined in this lecture note was to evaluate the design principles and propulsion performance of prospective air-breathing engines operating on pulse detonations of realistic hydrocarbon fuels with a realistic technique of detonation initiation via deflagration-to-detonation transition (DDT). 1.0 INTRODUCTION Activities in th...

A body immersed in a highly viscous fluid can locomote by drawing in and expelling fluid through pores at its surface. We consider this mechanism of jet propulsion without inertia in the case of spheroidal bodies and derive both the swimming velocity and the hydrodynamic efficiency. Elementary examples are presented and exact axisymmetric solutions for spherical, prolate spheroidal, and oblate ...