Furthermore, unforeseen side effects of ion propulsion might in some way interfere with typical scientific experiments, such as fields and particle measurements.

The highly efficient ion thruster had a sufficient amount of propellant left to perform attitude control in addition to main propulsion, thus allowing the mission to continue.

Dawn, the first NASA operational ( i. e., non-technology demonstration ) mission to use an ion drive for its primary propulsion, is currently on track to explore and orbit the large main-belt asteroids 1 Ceres and 4 Vesta.

Interplanetary vehicles mostly use chemical rockets as well, although a few have used ion thrusters and Hall effect thrusters ( two different types of electric propulsion ) to great success.

Other technologies such as tether propulsion, VASIMR, ion drives, solar thermal rockets, solar sails, magnetic sails, and nuclear thermal propulsion can all potentially help solve the problems of high transport cost once in space.

In spacecraft propulsion, a Hall thruster is a type of ion thruster in which the propellant is accelerated by an electric field.

However, the Hall thruster was only developed into an efficient propulsion device in the former Soviet Union, whereas in the US, scientists focused instead on developing gridded ion thrusters.

An ion thruster is a form of electric propulsion used for spacecraft propulsion that creates thrust by accelerating ions.

The terms is strictly used to refer to gridded ion thrusters, but may often more loosely be applied to all electric propulsion systems that accelerate plasma, since plasma consists of ions.

Due to their relatively high power needs, given the specific power of power supplies, and the requirement of an environment void of other ionized particles, ion thrust propulsion is currently only practical in space.

This low thrust makes ion thrusters unsuited for launching spacecraft into orbit, but they are ideal for in-space propulsion applications.

Many spacecraft propulsion methods such as ion thrusters require an input of electric power to run but are highly efficient.

Such an ion scoop will use electromagnetic funnels, or electrostatic fields to collect ionized hydrogen gas from space for use as propellant by ramjet propulsion systems ( since much of the hydrogen is not ionized, some versions of a scoop propose ionizing the hydrogen, perhaps with a laser, ahead of the ship.

# The exhaust velocity of their interplanetary ion propulsion ramjet could not exceed 100, 000 m / s ( 100 km / s );

Pulsed inductive thrusters ( or PITs ) are a form of ion thruster, used in spacecraft propulsion.

In many cases, propulsion systems with very high specific impulses — some ion thrusters reach 10, 000 seconds — produce low thrusts.

Interplanetary vehicles mostly use chemical rockets as well, although a few have used ion thrusters and Hall effect thrusters ( two different types of electric propulsion ) to great success.

* 1998-US Deep Space 1 is first deep space mission to use an ion thruster for propulsion

Spacecraft today predominantly use rockets for propulsion, but other propulsion techniques such as ion drives are becoming more common, particularly for unmanned vehicles, and this can significantly reduce the vehicle's mass and increase its delta-v.

Field-emission electric propulsion ( FEEP ) is an advanced electrostatic space propulsion concept, a form of ion thruster, that uses liquid metal ( usually either caesium, indium or mercury ) as a propellant.

Although the engine produces just 92 millinewtons ( 0. 331 ounce-force ) thrust at maximum power ( 2, 100W on DS1 ), the craft achieved high speeds because ion engines thrust continuously for long periods.

The focus of this mission phase was on the ion engine systems.

* maximum power: 2, 500 W ( of which 2, 100 W powers the ion thrust engine )

Figure 2: A diagram of how a gridded electrostatic ion engine ( Kaufman type ) works

To avoid charging-up the spacecraft, another cathode is placed near the engine, which emits electrons ( basically the electron current is the same as the ion current ) into the ion beam.

The collected propellant can be used as reaction mass in a plasma rocket engine, ion rocket engine, or even in an antimatter-matter annihilation powered rocket engine.

The scooped ions will however have an electric field-induced velocity when they are drawn inside of the ion ramjet engine.

The engine is powered by proton motive force, i. e., by the flow of protons ( hydrogen ions ) across the bacterial cell membrane due to a concentration gradient set up by the cell's metabolism ( in Vibrio species there are two kinds of flagella, lateral and polar, and some are driven by a sodium ion pump rather than a proton pump ).

TIE fighters ' solar panels power a twin ion engine ( TIE ) system that accelerates gases at a high speed along almost any vector, affording the ships tremendous speed and maneuverability.

The ion engine system failed.

It also had an experimental ion engine.

This ion engine setup achieved a specific impulse of 16. 1 kN · s / kg ( 1, 640 seconds ), more than three times the maximum for chemical rockets.

Throughout its main voyage to the Jupiter moons, it was to be propelled by an ion propulsion system via either the HiPEP or NEXIS engine, and powered by a small fission reactor.

NEXIS ion engine test ( 2005 )

HiPEP ion engine test ( 2003 )

A Glenn-derived ion engine was used on the successful NASA probe Deep Space 1.

Nuclear reactors could be used to power ion engine s such as this one used on Deep Space 1.

The solar collector would feed an ion drive engine that would power the craft.

The ion engine was first demonstrated by German-born NASA scientist Ernst Stuhlinger, and developed in practical form by Harold R. Kaufman at NASA Lewis ( now Glenn ) Research Center from 1957 to the early 1960s.

NASA Glenn continued to develop electrostatic ion thrusters through the 1980s, developing the NSTAR engine, that was used successfully on the Deep Space 1 probe, the first mission to fly an interplanetary trajectory using electric propulsion as the primary propulsion.

* NSTAR ion engine