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An ion thruster, ion drive, or ion engine is a form of electric propulsion used for spacecraft propulsion. An ion thruster creates a cloud of positive ions from a neutral gas by ionizing it to extract some electrons from its atoms. The ions are then accelerated using electricity to create thrust.
The gridded ion thruster is a common design for ion thrusters, a highly efficient low-thrust spacecraft propulsion method running on electrical power by using high-voltage grid electrodes to accelerate ions with electrostatic forces.
An ion-propelled aircraft or ionocraft is an aircraft that uses electrohydrodynamics (EHD) to provide lift or thrust in the air without requiring combustion or moving parts. Current designs do not produce sufficient thrust for crewed flight or useful loads.
In spacecraft propulsion, a Hall-effect thruster (HET) is a type of ion thruster in which the propellant is accelerated by an electric field. Hall-effect thrusters (based on the discovery by Edwin Hall ) are sometimes referred to as Hall thrusters or Hall-current thrusters .
The NEXT thruster has demonstrated, in ground tests, a total impulse of 17 MN·s; which as of 2010 was the highest total impulse ever demonstrated by an ion thruster. [2] A beam extraction area 1.6 times that of NSTAR allows higher thruster input power while maintaining low voltages and ion current densities, thus maintaining thruster longevity.
Field-emission electric propulsion (FEEP) is an advanced electrostatic space propulsion concept, a form of ion thruster, that uses a liquid metal as a propellant – usually either caesium, indium, or mercury. [1] A FEEP device consists of an emitter and an accelerator electrode.
The Deep Space 1 and Dawn used the NSTAR, a solar-powered electrostatic ion propulsion engine. The NASA Solar Technology Application Readiness (NSTAR) is a type of spacecraft ion thruster called electrostatic ion thruster. [1] [2] It is a highly efficient low-thrust spacecraft propulsion running on electrical power generated by solar arrays.
Like with thruster concepts such as VASIMR, the dual-stage-4-grid ion thrusters are mainly limited by the necessary power supply for their operation.For example, if solar panels were to supply more than 250 kW, the size of the solar array would surpass the size of the solar panels of the International Space Station.