Spacecraft electric propulsion encompasses spacecraft propulsion systems that use electric energy to accelerate and expel propellant, generating thrust through electric or magnetic fields. Their princ
A 6 kW xenon Hall thruster in operation at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in 1911 predicted that electricity may some day propel vehicles.
Hermann Oberth (center), with (l-r) Ernst Stuhlinger, Holger Toftoy, Wernher von Braun, and Robert Lusser at Marshall Space Flight Center. Oberth is credited with defining electric propulsion concepts as a "serious and worthy pursuit in astronautics".
SERT-1 was the first ion engine NASA spacecraft, launched on July 20, 1964.
Ion thruster
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An ion thruster, ion drive, or ion engine is a form of electric propulsion used for spacecraft propulsion. An ion thruster creates a cloud of positive ions from a neutral gas by ionizing it to extract
Spacecraft electric propulsion
…better suited to long-duration in-space maneuvers. The main families of spacecraft electric propulsion include electrostatic devices such as gridded ion engines, Hall-effect thrusters, and colloid thrusters; electromagnetic devices such as pulsed plasma thrusters, magnetoplasmadynamic thrusters, and pulsed…
The 2.3 kW NSTAR ion thruster developed by NASA for the Deep Space 1 spacecraft during a hot fire test at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (1999)
NEXIS ion engine test (2005)
Thruster components