This Steam-Powered Rocket Can Explore Space Forever

Parvati Misra - Jan 14, 2019

The steam-powered rocket is described being at the size of a microwave.

A revolutionary invention that will change space exploration any time soon.

A steamed-powered rocket, which was named “World Is Not Enough” or WINE for short, harnesses water from its current location, converts it into steam to travel to another destination, instead of using conventional fuel.

In a news release, Phil Metzger – a researcher from the University of Central Florida (UCF) – stated that they could most likely use the technology to jump to Moon, Pluto, Mercury, Ceres, and other asteroids as long as these planets have sufficiently low gravity and enough water.

The project was funded by NASA. A steam-powered rocket prototype has been built by Honeybee Robotics with the assist from other researchers at the University of Embry-Riddle. The steam-powered rocket is described being at the size of a microwave.

The required computer modeling and simulations for the spacecraft were done by Metzger. When the test flight came, the necessary material was provided by the UCF for the spacecraft to mine.

As stated by Metzger, the demonstration was a success, WINE has done well mining water the soil, making rocket propellant and launching itself leaving a jet of steam behind its path.

As we all know, there is plenty of water in our solar system, ranging from the Moon to even smaller asteroids floating around in space. Provided we can provide the sufficient fuel to bring a WINE spacecraft on to these planets or asteroids, a mobile solar panel can then power the mining and create the necessary steam for the spacecraft to travel.

A considerably longer and cheaper mission can be conducted by this steam-powered spacecraft compared to what we are currently doing.

Metzger also claimed that WINE was designed to never run out of propellant so exploration would be far cheaper. Furthermore, since we won’t have to wait as a new spacecraft travels from Earth to another planet or asteroid every space-expedition, which could take years, WINE-spacecraft can make our time exploring space much shorter.