The ion thruster, fueled by xenon gas, ran for a total of 16,265 hours during the mission, providing a total change in velocity (delta-V) of 4.3 kilometers per second, the largest for any ...

The AEPS is a solar electric propulsion system that uses xenon as its propellant, much like existing ion engines. Where it differs is in the power output, which should allow it to work as the ...

One of the most exciting new applications is in xenon-ion propulsion engines for space travel. Onboard NASA's Dawn spacecraft, launched in 2007 to study distant asteroids Vesta and Ceres ...

In an ion propulsion system, electrons are fired into a magnetic field containing the noble gas xenon. When a xenon atom is hit, it loses one of its negatively charged electrons and turns into a ...

A neutral propellant, often xenon, is flowed through the cylindrical ... The most common of these, field emission electric propulsion (FEEP), utilize liquid metals as its ion source to produce ...

Predicting 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 several ...

Ion engines propel a spacecraft one atom at a time. The devices rip electrons off xenon gas to create a stream ... told Tech Insider in an email. "But the thruster can be fired for cumulated ...