NationStates Jolt Archive

Today, the USSANL announced that it has launched a probe equiped with a propulsion system that could possibly travel slightly bellow or at light speeds. The only the few photos of this device were taken from a defense satelitte:
http://home.t-online.de/home/kurt.ohno/images/sputnik3.gif
http://www.mundofree.com/ea3atl/Sputnik/spkfoto.gif

Ground tracking stations confirmed it to be an USSANL probe launched from an undisclosed missile base:
http://wwiiphotos.com/Large%20Thumbnails/Dscn2465.jpg
and is a product of the Space Exploration Inititave. Currently, the probe is in orbit of NS Earth making a radio ping that can be heard on transistor radios. More information will be released tomorrow.

How exactly will this reach said speeds? it doesn't look too fast....

Looks are deceptive... :wink:

Actually, how it works is a very minute amount of anti-matter (anti-protons to be exact) come into contact with there "normal" counterparts. Once they come into contact, they destroy each other generating a great amount of energy, this energy is used to create thrust and there you go. To prevent the anti-matter from destroying the entire probe, magnetic fields have been designed to contain it in a tight bundle, keeping it away from regular matter, or that is how it should work. On the same token, to prevent the probe from being crushed from the velocity, magnetic fields have been designed to keep structural integrity.

The test results will be published tomarrow. Anybody with a transitor radio can still hear it ping for a little while longer.

(OOC: Please don't pressure me too much on explaining how the laws of physics work and so on, I'm only 16)