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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.
Both these types of ion immediately attract a variety of air molecules to create molecular cluster-ions [14] of either sign, which act as charge carriers. 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 ...
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.
6 kW Hall thruster in operation at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 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.
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.
Hall effect thruster, a type of ion thruster; Ion thruster, using beams of ions accelerated electrically; Magnetoplasmadynamic thruster, electric propulsion using the Lorentz force; Pulsed inductive thruster, a pulsed form of ion thruster; Pulsed plasma thruster, using current arced across a solid propellant; RF resonant cavity thruster, an ...
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.