Ion-drives use ionised gas (argon I think) for propulsion. Could metal-powder also be used? The powder could be accelerated the same way a railgun accelates a bullet - and it would use less electricity because nothing would have to be ionised, or turned into plasma. The bad side would be that the fuel would be quite heavy.
Could metal-powder be used for propulsion?
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It could but probably raises more problems than its worth.
(ever stand on a wind-blown beach and get blasted by grit? Ever watch a machine-shop sandblaster work? Gas at ultra-high speeds is a lot easier to handle than abrasive grit...)
(ever stand on a wind-blown beach and get blasted by grit? Ever watch a machine-shop sandblaster work? Gas at ultra-high speeds is a lot easier to handle than abrasive grit...)
... and spraying abrasive grit across the solar system probably isn't going to make you very popular with anyone who get caught in the path of the exhaust. Ensuring that the velocity is greater than solar escape velocity would help (as the article mentions) -- 42 km/s at 1 AU -- but this would reduce the motor's efficiency.
ETA: I tried to use Wolfram Alpha to estimate the deceleration of 10 micron-sized iron particles moving at 42km/s relative to the solar wind -- no luck there.
I would do it the hard way but I can't summon up the motivation.
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