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Current EHD thrusters are far less efficient than conventional engines. [15] An MIT researcher noted that ion thrusters have the potential to be far more efficient than conventional jet engines. [16] Unlike pure ion thruster rockets, the electrohydrodynamic principle does not apply in the vacuum of space. [17]
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.
In 2011, NASA partnered with Busek to launch the first hall effect thruster aboard the Tacsat-2 satellite. The thruster was the satellite's main propulsion system. The company launched another hall effect thruster that year. [7] In 2020, research on a plasma jet was published by Wuhan University. [8]
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.
The EAD Airframe Version 2, or V2, is a small American unmanned aircraft. It has been described as ' solid state ', as there are no moving parts in the propulsion system; all thrust is powered by the phenomenon known as ion wind . [ 1 ]
Illustration of the right-hand rule for the Lorentz force, cross product of an electric current with a magnetic field. The working principle involves the acceleration of an electrically conductive fluid (which can be a liquid or an ionized gas called a plasma) by the Lorentz force, resulting from the cross product of an electric current (motion of charge carriers accelerated by an electric ...
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.
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.