It works!

My very first prototype works! It's a small thruster for maneuvering satellites in space using electric arcs. It's called a vacuum arc thruster (sounds cool, huh?).

It makes tiny little sparks as expected even if only for a short time. Boy, it's a good feeling to finally get some hardware working.

Some of the guys in the lab looked very interested when I got it working. The next step is to ensure that I'm delivering sufficient energy to produce thrust and not just pretty lights.

Last Saturday, I did my first vacuum chamber test of my thruster and was very disappointed that nothing happened. Well, thank goodness that I did it anyway because it forced me to have a closer look at the initiation mechanism.

I think it's time to celebrate!