How to install an ion-engine to my rocket ???

Well, to start with, you cannot fire an ion rocket in the presence of any atmosphere: it just won't work - so unless you have an experimental facility at the Space Station, the first requirement (before you can even test such an engine at all) is a vacuum pump that can suck your test chamber down to a radio-tube vacuum while swallowing the gas flow rate of the rocket exhaust. That turns out to require a really impressive pumping system...

Then there's the fact that (since the engine can only fire in a vacuum) you have to launch it from something that's already in orbit: so we still need rockets with chemical fuels to get up to orbit.

-dave w

First of all... you will need to get your ion engine into space... It won't work in Earths atmosphere... only the vacumn of space.

1. The vacuum of space
2. A mission tolerant of very low thrust for very long time
3. A massively governmentally controlled power source
4. Access to a launch vehicle with evil chemical propulsion to launch it.

Jerry

Probably a time machine.

Not *entirely* true, Jerry.

Ion engines will work fine with solar-cell power supplies... you just need a whole freakin' LOT of them to get the needed kilowatts. :-)

:)

Special dispensation, since the burn time will exceed 15 seconds, and low grvaity, cause it's low thrust. Now a mass driver on the other hand.......

Chuck

I would much rather try to design a magneticly launched rocket.

Does it "burn"?

Do you mean like a coil-gun, but vertical?

grvaity, cause it's low thrust. Now a mass driver on the other hand.......

Sure, just like AP "explodes".

Not sure if that would count as a rocket though? More like a gun that fires a projectile equipped with a recovery device.

The effects on on-board electronics could be 'interesting' too :-)

Acceleration would have to be very high too, so it would have to be a very strong projectile. It would have to be magnetic also....

Well, a rocket is a projectile, I was thinking along the lines of a ring launcher, and the ring would be the launch lug, but developping the power output needed would be difficult