GOCE’s sophisticated electric ion propulsion system has been switched on and confirmed to be operating normally, marking another crucial milestone in the satellite’s post-launch commissioning phase.

NASA has successfully tested a 120-kilowatt lithium-fed magnetoplasmadynamic thruster, its most powerful ion engine to date, at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The technology, about 25 times stronger ...

A new era for space propulsion? An ion engine twenty-five times more powerful than NASA's current best model has just been successfully tested in the laboratory. This technology, which ...

CLEVELAND — A small robotic surveyor arrives to explore a near-Earth asteroid. Another robotic spacecraft is returning to Earth with a pristine comet surface sample. Meanwhile, a robotic explorer is ...

NASA’s new electric propulsion engine set a U.S. power record and could transform future Mars missions. The thrusters use much less fuel than chemical rockets while gradually reaching extremely high ...

Psyche is gently gliding to its target asteroid by expelling ionized xenon. Psyche is gently gliding to its target asteroid by expelling ionized xenon. NASA has turned on the electric Hall thrusters ...

Sending an object to another star is still the stuff of science fiction. But some concrete missions could get us at least part way there. These "interstellar precursor missions" include a trip to the ...

Click to open image viewer. This is a cesium ion engine developed by the Electro-Optical Systems, Inc. as an experimental high-energy thruster for spacecraft. Ion engines produce extremely low thrusts ...