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.
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Monday November 22 2021, @09:27PM (1 child)
Untrue. Solar power is now considered viable for Jupiter, although the panels are quite large. Saturn, forget about it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juno_(spacecraft) [wikipedia.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter_Icy_Moons_Explorer [wikipedia.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_Clipper [wikipedia.org]
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(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday November 22 2021, @09:34PM
Juno marks the first time solar panels have actually been used for a Jupiter mission, but you can expect many future missions to also use them:
Europa Clipper
Jupiter is a popular (frequent missions, and flybys are done just for the gravity assist [wikipedia.org]) and relatively easy to reach destination in the Solar system, so it's good that nuclear isotopes can be reserved for missions to Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Eris, etc.
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