The thruster was developed under NASA’s Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT) program as the next generation beyond the ion engines now propelling the Dawn spacecraft to a pair of asteroids.

Let’s take an ion propulsion engine example: The NSTAR ion engine was developed for the Deep Space 1 satellite. This engine uses Xenon atoms that have a mass m = 2.2 x 10-25 kg and a charge of the all ...

It’s called a xenon-ion propulsion engine, and instead of using rocket fuel, it harnesses magnetic fields to create thrust. If you take a look at the image above, you can see a tiny blue jet of ...

Ion thrusters are considerably more efficient than conventional rocket motors. In this case, Boeing claims the Xenon Ion Propulsion System (XIPS) designs used for ABS-3A is ten times more ...

And, by some measures, it outperformed a xenon-based thruster by 50 percent. Space-based demo Working hardware was flown on a 12-unit cubesat weighing about 20 kilograms called Beihangkongshi-1.

Ion propulsion uses positively charged atoms, or ions, to propel a spacecraft. An electron gun is used to knock electrons from a reservoir of xenon atoms, turning them into ions.

That's why French aerospace company ThrustMe is pursuing a plan for better ion propulsion tech. They suggest using iodine instead of xenon. Iodine is incredibly prevalent, inexpensive and easy to ...

Xenon Ion Thruster Logs 30,000 Hours by SpaceNews Staff July 6, 2010 January 30, 2023. Click to share on X (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) ...

NASA is now considering using this xenon-ion thruster for another space-rock mission, the Asteroid Initiative, which would see a robot probe capture a nearby asteroid and shove it into a stable ...

Posted in News, Solar Hacks, Space Tagged ESA, ion propulsion, JAXA, mercury, rocket, solar electric motor, space, xenon Neon Lamps Light Up Dim Ion Motor April 14, 2018 by Steven Dufresne 6 Comments ...

While yes, ion propulsion is a great thing, I think it's misleading when you/they say it's "all electric propulsion", because it isn't, it burns xenon gas.

Now Boeing has announced the first all-electric ion propulsion satellite is fully operational. The satellite in question doesn't have a snappy name -- it's a communications satellite called ABS-3A ...