How Do Ion Engines Work? The Most Efficient Propulsion System Out There
People always ask me why we’re stuck with chemical rockets. Seriously, exploding a bunch of hydrogen or kerosene is the best we can do?
Good news, there are other, exotic science fiction-sounding propulsion systems out there which use electromagnetic fields to accelerate atoms, allowing their spacecraft to accelerate for months at a time.
I’m talking about ion engines, of course, and several spacecraft have already used these exotic thrusters to perform some of the most amazing missions in the exploration of the Solar System.
How Do Ion Engines Work? The Most Efficient Propulsion System Out There (YouTube)
Comments (5)
Yup. Even more so to the people who were permanent staff at LeRC. I worked there a few summers, on summer faculty fellowships, but the research/development had gone on there since the early/mid 1960s. Many of those people had spent their careers on it, only to see it sent to Marshall, then scrubbed. Very sad!!
Fraser, I had the privilege of working on ion thruster research back in the late 1970s and early 80s at what was then known as the NASA Lewis Research Center (now Glenn Research Center) in Cleveland OH. Without going into all the details, we found a flaw in the current design, which (I hope) led to better versions later on. People at Lewis were devastated when the Halley Comet mission was assigned to Marshall, but then the mission was scrubbed due to the Challenger disaster. I've been out of touch with ion thruster work since then, but have watched with great fascination as missions have actually happened. The chemical rocket folks opposed ion thrusters vehemently. The spacecraft would charge up and discharge, destroying electronics. Or you would require electrons to go along with the ions, cancelling the acceleration. And on and on. There is a long story of getting the thrusters on LEO missions to show that they actually worked. BTW, at that time the propellant was mercury! LeRC (as it was known then) had these monster vacuum chambers where we tested the ion engines. The mercury built up on the inside walls of the chambers and had to be cleaned out. People were then beginning to realize how dangerous mercury is, and there was almost a strike on the part of the workers who had to go inside these chambers and clean out the mercury! I worked on this for a couple of summers, went on to other things at Lewis (Glenn), and then went full time in teaching, administration, etc. at my university. But it was very cool to see these engines mature and accomplish what they have on the Vesta/Ceres mission. Looking forward to more!!
That's awesome, it must have been frustrating to see the mission scrubbed. That's heartbreaking. I think with the Dawn mission, ion engines really proved their capabilities, and now we're going to see them on more and more spacecraft.
Nice Video :) And something I was curious about.
Thanks a lot!