> I could see the most practical use of this technology for propulsion where crashing isn't a major concern.
Missiles jumped to mind. That's their whole purpose.
Missiles jumped to mind. That's their whole purpose.
The point was that this current design won’t be enough energy to keep a heavy vehicle aloft, but it could be enough to propel something that can passively stay airborne.
"Excellent... when do they hit?"
"According to our calculations... ohhh about 6 weeks from now"
I was thinking how Musk could do that. Launch some tungstan rods into a highly eliptical orbit, small thruster + control pack on them to adjust their orbit when required. When it's out at say 300,000k+ fire the engine for a few seconds, adjusting the orbit so it will crash into the chosen target a few days from now. The high apogee means not a lot of power to change orbit to collision, and almost impossible to detect. It would likely appear to be an asteroid hit.