October 2016
Unlocking the potential of annular ion engines
... range in Isp. The AIE concept represents a natural progression of gridded ion thruster technology beyond the capabilities embodied by NASA’s Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT) [1]. The AIE would be appropriate for: (a) applications which require...
September 2019
A new era in planetary defence missions
... final hour of the mission. The DART spacecraft will also demonstrate other new technologies, including NASA’s Evolutionary Xenon Thruster-Commercial (NEXT-C) ion engine, developed by NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. The NEXT-C engine...
24 November 2021
NASA successfully launches its DART mission
... two, 28-foot-long, roll-out solar arrays. They will power both the spacecraft and NASA’s Evolutionary Xenon Thruster – Commercial ion engine, one of several technologies being tested on DART for future application on space missions. “At its...
