Phil Metzger, a scientist at the University of Central Florida, and Honeybee Robotics from Florida, developedthe World Is Not Enough (WINE) spacecraft, capable of traveling using water found on asteroids. The size of the WINE resembles a microwave and can take off from any cosmic body with a little gravity and with the presence of water.
The device is able to land on an asteroid or other cosmic body independently, extract water there and start creating thrust due to steam towards the object with suitable characteristics for the subsequent launch. In theory, such a rocket can travel “forever.”
In turn, WINE will be able to receive energy for the extraction of water using solar panels. The use of a radioisotope reactor for objects remote from a star (for example, Pluto) is not excluded.
The WINE prototype exists, but it flew in mathematically simulated situations.
