Getting that fuel into orbit is costly, too! Ion thrusters, in their various forms, offer an alternative solution – miniscule thrust, but high fuel efficiency. This tiny push won’t get you off ...

When [Jay Bowles] demoed his first-generation ion thruster on Plasma Channel, the resulting video picked up millions of views and got hobbyists and professionals alike talking. While ionic lifters ...

Inspired by NASA aerospace engineering, this project features a plasma thruster, designed to maximize efficiency and increase ...

Things have changed in the past decade, with researchers testing different methods of propulsion. Take Orbion Space Technology, for example. They supply NASA with ion thrusters, and they are a ...

P redicting the lifetime of an electric ion thruster is notoriously difficult. You have to account for the chamber wall effects, which are not present in space environments. Researchers within ...

Hollow cathodes are used as part of both Hall effect and gridded ion thrusters, which are some of the most common forms of electric propulsion in use today. The operation of hollow cathodes, despite ...

But in traditional ion engines, sometimes called Hall thrusters, the constant bombardment of energized particles against the back wall of the engine gradually wears it down until the device shorts ...

Dr. King is an experimentalist interested in studying electric space propulsion systems, including Hall-effect thrusters, ion engines, and arcjets. By utilizing strong electromagnetic forces to ...

thrusters generate low thrust via the electrostatic extraction of charged species from an electrified liquid. These systems are characterized by the propellant used and emission mode of the ion beam.

Unlike most interplanetary probes, Dawn is not propelled by a chemical rocket engine, but by a solar-electric ion propulsion system, particularly suitable for long-distance flights. This innovative ...