Expand (charge: Haitong Yu
When Jason Benkoski is correct, the route to interstellar space starts in a delivery container tucked from a lab high bay from Maryland. The setup seems like something from a low-budget sci-fi movie: A single wall of this container is lined with a huge number of LEDs, an inscrutable metallic trellis runs down the middle, along with a thick black curtain partly obscures the device. This is actually the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab solar power, a tool which could shine with the seriousness of 20 suns. On Thursday afternoon, Benkoski mounted a tiny white and black tile on the trellis and pulled on a shadowy curtain round the setup before stepping from the delivery container. He then struck the light switch.
When the solar bomb has been hot, Benkoski began pumping liquid helium via a tiny inserted tube that snaked throughout the globe. Even the helium absorbed heat from the LEDs because it wound through the station and enlarged until it was eventually released through a tiny nozzle. It may not seem like much, however, Benkoski along with his group only attested solar thermal propulsion, a formerly theoretical kind of rocket engine that’s powered from the sun’s warmth. They believe that it may be the trick to interstellar exploration.
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