Word: xenon
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What is most remarkable about the spacecraft is how it gets from place to place. After being launched by an ordinary rocket, DS1 will be pushed through space by an engine that works by firing electrons into atoms of xenon gas, stripping each of an electron and giving the atoms an electric charge--ionizing them. The ions are then accelerated through an electric field and emitted from thrusters at 65,000 m.p.h. Despite that speed, the particles produce little thrust, comparable to the weight of a piece of paper...
That patience pays off. DS1 will carry a mere 180 lbs. of xenon fuel, about one-tenth the fuel needed for a conventional craft. Electricity required to power thrusters and other equipment will come from a new solar panel equipped with 720 lenses that focus sunlight down to a strip of solar cells...
...Xenon, an inert gas already used in hospitalsas an anesthetic, can be pre-magnetized with alaser using Walsworth's method and inhaled by thepatient. The xenon then diffuses throughout thebody almost instantly, allowing a properly tunedMRI to detect the image...
Because the gas is premagnetized, MRI machinesdetecting xenon only require a weak magnetic fieldand can probably be made much smaller thanconventional imagers. Walsworth says he hopes thenew MRI's compact size will allow it to be broughtaboard the space shuttle to provide data on howzero gravity affects the body...
...xenon gas may also allow doctors to use MRIfor relatively waterfree organs such as the lungs...