In response to two NASA Office of Space Science initiatives, the NASA Glenn Research Center is now developing a 7-kW-class xenon ion thruster system for near-term solar-powered spacecraft and a 25-kW ion engine for nuclear-electric spacecraft. The 7-kW ion thruster and power processor can be throttled down to 1 kW and are applicable to 25-kW flagship missions to the outer planets, asteroids, and comets. This propulsion system was scaled up from the 2.5-kW ion thruster and power processor that was developed successfully by Glenn, Boeing, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and Spectrum Astro for the Deep Space 1 spacecraft. The 7-kW ion thruster system is being developed under NASA's Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT) project, which includes partners from JPL, Aerojet, Boeing, the University of Michigan, and Colorado State University.
Ion Thruster Power Levels Extended by a Factor of 10
2004-05-01
Miscellaneous
No indication
English
Ion Thruster Power Levels Extended by a Factor of 10
NTIS | 2004
|Extended-performance thruster technology evaluation
AIAA | 1978
|Extended temperature range ACPS thruster investigation
NTRS | 1974
|SERT II 1980 extended flight thruster experiments
NTRS | 1981
|Extended performance 8-cm mercury ion thruster
AIAA | 1982
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