Microfluidic Electrospray Propulsion

[Raider5678]

Hello everyone,

 

I was reading about these engines, and I through they were really interesting. I was wondering about a few things, and I'm hoping you guys can answer a few questions.

 

I watched the video from ted ed about the future of space craft, and they had a short explanation of the way it worked. I looked at some diagrams on it later, and found that they're nothing liked the one the ted video showed. Now I understand that they simplified it extremely much, but does the ted video show the basics? I won't post the link, but you can look of up: "the future of spacecraft" ted ed.

My questions are:

How accurate is the diagram on the ted video?

How is the electric field created?

What's the specifics on the grid that releases the fluid?

Whats the possibility of making one?

 

 

P.S. I'm a layman on the subject.

[Enthalpy]

Maybe you could provide some links, preferibly not to a video? I feel reasonable that one poster searches web addresses rather than his 20+ readers.

 

There, they suggest thrust in the µN-mN range, and total delta-V of 1000m/s which is worse than chemical propulsion

http://microdevices.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news-microfluidic-electrospray-propulsion.php

so applications will be niche ones if any. Don't expect to send people to Mars that way.