Ion thrusters need a power source and an effective one if they will last more than a decade under thrust. The paper defined ...

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 … ...

A team of researchers has come up with plasma beam that can push space debris out of orbit. Mounted on a satellite, the two-way facing beam is produced by a bespoke ion thruster that uses its ...

Predicting the lifetime of an electric ion thruster is notoriously difficult. You have to account for the chamber wall ...

The propulsion system for NASA's planned moon-orbiting Gateway space station has been undergoing qualification testing at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.

Ion thrusters are the most common primary engine powering satellites through orbital maneuvers today. But to travel from low-Earth orbit (LEO) to farther orbits—or even the Moon—requires a ...

SAN FRANCISCO – French propulsion startup Ion-X raised 13 million euros ($13.67 million) in a Series A funding round announced Dec. 10. With the investment, the spinoff of the French National ...

NASA's Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT) ion engine has set a new world record by clocking up 43,000 hours of continuous operation at NASA’s Glenn Research Center’s Electric Propulsion ...

World-renowned engineer Jacques Giérak founded ION-X in 2021 following decades of research into electrospray propulsion systems at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and CNES.

“The biggest challenge is [ion thrusters] need 20,000 or 30,000 volts just to work. High voltage on an aircraft doesn’t come easy,” he says.

The ion thruster uses electricity, in powerful bursts similar to an arc welder, to produce plasma, ... Paddy Neumann: An anode, which is the positive part of the circuit, ...

Ion thrusters used in space inject a negative particle beam into the exhaust to neutralize it, so this doesn’t happen. Report comment. Reply. Alysson Rowan says: September 20, 2022 at 1:17 am ...