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Electric Propulsion Comes of Age with Psyche Mission to an Asteroid

posted by martyb on Monday November 22 2021, @10:54AM   Printer-friendly
from the AXE:-Advancing-Xenon-Emitters dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

Not Science Fiction: Electric Propulsion Comes of Age With Psyche Mission to an Asteroid:

Psyche's Hall thrusters will be the first to be used beyond lunar orbit, demonstrating that they could play a role in supporting future missions to deep space. The spacecraft is set to launch in August 2022 and its super-efficient mode of propulsion uses solar arrays to capture sunlight that is converted into electricity to power the spacecraft's thrusters. The thrusters work by turning xenon gas, a neutral gas used in car headlights and plasma TVs, into xenon ions. As the xenon ions are accelerated out of the thruster, they create the thrust that will propel the spacecraft.

Belters rejoice.

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  • (Score: 4, Touché) by takyon on Monday November 22 2021, @12:23PM

    by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Monday November 22 2021, @12:23PM (#1198558) Journal

    Because then I would say it came of age with the Dawn mission [wikipedia.org] to Vesta and Ceres.

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