CERN role in thriller is boon for public outreach

摘要

A high-efficiency heat engine concept on which we have done considerable work at NASA’s John Glenn Research Center is the free-piston Stirling engine. This remarkable design eliminates the kinematic couplings and thus reduces the engine to only two moving parts, the displacer and power pistons; a linear alternator produces power directly as electricity. Small, light, and efficient, the Stirling engine—and not the internal combustion engine—may be the real future of the automobile engine.