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 ...

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

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 ...

The idea behind electric propulsion is that an electric current ionizes (i.e. removes an electron from) atoms of a neutral gas, such as xenon or krypton ... to as an ion engine.

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 ...