March 2015
Dawn of ion propulsion
... thruster at roughly 10 times the speed of the propellants expelled by rockets on typical spacecraft, and this is the source of ion propulsion’s extraordinary efficacy. North is at the top of this figure and the sun is far to the left. Ceres orbital...
April 2020
Plasma Clipper - opening the age of sail, in space travel
... ‘sail’ through space. Although the promise of propellant-less propulsion offered by solar energy is an incredibly appealing prospect, most ...can respond much more quickly than the ions can. Therefore, to the ions, the electrons flowing around in a ...
October 2016
Unlocking the potential of annular ion engines
... near the Child-Langmuir limit [8]. Applications The AIE represents a natural progression of gridded ion technology beyond that embodied by NEXT ion propulsion system (IPS), and its development to higher Technology Readiness Level (TRL) can leverage...
August 2016
Our changing world and the mounting risk of a calamitous solar storm
... of space transport way-station for transitioning from chemically fuelled rocket launchers to much more efficient electric ion propulsion systems that could fly on to the Moon and Mars? Conceptual study of magnetic structure in space to create a safe...
September 2019
A new era in planetary defence missions
..., Ohio. The NEXT-C engine is a new generation of gridded ion propulsion technology, powered by electromagnetically accelerating xenon ions, which form the characteristic blue glow of the ion beam that propels the spacecraft. The NEXT-C engine will...
13 March 2015
Ceres breakthrough: NASA's Dawn is first probe to visit a dwarf planet
..., we have a huge main belt comet with a very large supply of water inside it. And ion propulsion is very, very important to this particular mission. By using ion propulsion, we were able to do things that larger missions could not have done. [Dawn...
