Advanced Space Propulsion Systems

Rating:
Summary: New ideas in, um, rocket science
Review: I find the subject of this book, advanced space propulsion systems, very interesting. And there's plenty of good material in the book. Still, I wish it had delved into some of the topics in greater detail. And while I tend to try to be as comprehensive as possible when I cover a field, I have to admit that Tajmar covers some topics I would actually have skipped.

The book starts with a quick overview of rocket propulsion, including monopropellant and bipropellant engines. And we soon discover that Tajmar is going to take us from the fundamentals of rocket science into more speculative areas. He briefly dicusses "advanced propellants" such as atomic hydrogen, metastable helium, and metallic hydrogen. Let's just say that in spite of (or maybe due to) my familiarity with these ideas, it would not have occurred to me to mention them in a book.

The author then evaluates launch assist technologies. These include aircraft assists, catapults, cannons, gas guns, ram accelerators, and electromagnetic (and magnetohydrodynamic) accelerators. There's even a mention of reducing drag with surface charging.

Next we get to nuclear propulsion. I would have expanded the section on fission propulsion, and thought twice about including the material on fusion propulsion and antimatter propulsion.

I think the best part of the book is the chapter on electric propulsion systems. There's plenty of information, including excellent photographs, of resistojets, arcjets, Hall thrusters, Kaufmann thrusters, Field Emission thrusters, Colloid thrusters, and more. Plus, there is a short section that could have been expanded on the threat of induced interactions between the plasma emitted by the propulsion system and the spacecraft.

Since this book looks to the future, that means a discussion of propulsion systems applicable for use on microspacecraft. Tajmar therefore includes a chapter on micropropulsion.

The next section is very interesting and not wholly speculative: "propellantless propulsion." That means tethers, laser propulsion, solar sails, and magnetic sails. Of these, I think solar sails surely deserved at least a few more pages.

The final chapter is a leap into what I think of as science fiction. That includes what I call "quantum propulsion" (an attempt to modify the vacuum and use the energy generated to propel a spacecraft). And it includes a attempts to couple gravitation and electromagnetism. And my, um, favorite: superconductor gravitational shielding. I might have omitted this chapter.

It's a useful book, but I think it could be improved.

Rating:
Summary: Love this book!!!!!!!
Review: This book has it all. All the todays propulsions systems that you think of.