Incredible Advances In Nuclear Stirling Engines For Space Exploration

Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about the steam engines powered by nuclear power
Links:
#stirlingengine #nuclear #spaceengine

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[billbhein]

Robert Stirling, was the inventor of the Stirling Engine in Scotland, where it was first Patented in 1816. He would be amazed that his initial invention would be developed over two hundred years later to drive spacecrafts to other worlds...

[paulpeterson]

We are witnessing the birth of the Age of Nuclear Steampunk

[josephang]

Unbelievable how old tech can inspire such new tech.

[danlaskowski]

I think if you chase the details, you will find that the Stirling in this video is what is called a "free piston" Stirling engine pioneered by a company in Ohio called SunPower. I saw a demonstration of one that used wood pellets for heat over twenty years ago. It was pretty cool!

[CarlosAM]

as someone who is rather obsessed with making stirling engines, great to see!

[goosecf]

I'm really excited to see how space ship design changes over the next few decades due to stuff like this

[oshkiv]

I used to make these engines all the time during HS. im very happy that they are starting to make their own comeback

[dalel]

I have a two piston Stirling engine sitting atop the Sat-TV box that has ran continuously for about a decade (minus the couple power outages, causing the box waste heat to end, it would stop for a bit then) now. The graphite power piston runs smoothly on the lexan without maintenance. I did add some Automatic Transmission Fluid to its flywheel shaft at the start for lubrication.

9:30 Anton, the funny bit is that the industrial revolution steam engine is NEWER than the Stirling engine. We're going back to pre-steam engine tech for our space future.

[RandomToon]

They have been using a version of this on submarines for a long time. Stirling engines connected to the engines and using sea water for the cold side. The Gotland class uses it and has about a 75-kilowatt output. Far too large for spacecraft, however, and in need of too much maintenance, but the Stirling engine is fantastic and in more places that one might think.

[IsaacFoster..]

Amazing news!! An efficient, really long term, no requirement for constant supervision power source is really what we as a humanity need right now.

[Aristoteles]

Nuclear steam punk in space! Very cool 🤓

[sebaufiend]

My first projects in grad school were with nuclear batteries. I remember following the ASRG project about 10 years ago. I was sad when they shut the project down. Glad to see they're still at it.

[pointesspcee]

It's heartening to see new technologies catch up to old ideas that were ahead of their time.

[dreamyrhodes]

The cool thing is that this engine can use any heat source. All it needs is a gradient of hot to cold. So you could even run this with a blank sheet that's warmed by the sun against the -250°C of the shadow on the other side.

[shiddy.]

imagine the giant Stirling engines we could build inside some of the craters on the moon where the bottom is never in sunlight

[kylewood]

The breadth between human genius and human idiocy is truly staggering sometimes. Thank God (and Anton, et al) for videos like this...the reminder we do have greatness in us as a species is sometimes much needed and always very appreciated.

[libertycowboy]

Used to work in the nuclear energy field and nuclear is the only tech we currently have that is both dependable and green. Now to use for space propulsion...

[smellthel]

I'm so happy stuff like this is still being discovered and innovated upon!

[mdtalhaansari]

This is by far the best science news channel in the world. No ridiculous music, no flashy intro or outro, just pure information. Simply brilliant.

[cldNclr]

--- im imagining taping a chunk of plutonium to the stirling engine i mad out of a can of corn, some chicken wire and hot glue that i made in my introductory engineering course. i kind of love and hate that that's basically what this is