So I dug a little deeper in order to evaluate this idea.
Not only has Parkins studied it, but others have as well. It seems to be a viable alternative to burning up propellant. It's advantages could be higher ISP. It's downsides are the usual with high ISP concepts---small thrust. Although Perkins advocated its use for large spacecraft, so it may be possible to get it to work for high thrust as well.
Another possibility is to use ablative propulsion. It will heat it up, and the conversion to a hot gas will provide thrust as it rapidly expands.
Posting one at geo seems excessive. Perhaps one could follow another, but at a higher altitude. In that way, the velocity difference won't be too much to force it out of range too quickly. Or so I think.
11/23/24, 8:49 AM:
Methinks this line of speculation belongs on a blog about speculations.
But that would be consistent.
Anyway, I can use this tool in order to continue the discussion here, as opposed to the other place. (LOX-LEO)
Boots and Oil Blog: Elements of a gas harvesting mode (Loxleo) https://t.co/umqM9difiy ---Forgive the shameless self-promotion...
— BootsandOil (@BootsandO6892) November 23, 2024
5:57 PM The red stream around the Starship is the stuff that you could capture for use in space. 80% of the mass needed for the raptor is oxygen, and there's a lot of it available up there. Know what I mean, Vern?
Starship reentry over the Indian Ocean pic.twitter.com/JKoph5QnmW
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 21, 2024
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