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Due to limited electric power the thrust is much weaker compared to chemical rockets, but electric propulsion can provide thrust for a longer time. [2] Electric propulsion was first demonstrated in the 1960s and is now a mature and widely used technology on spacecraft. American and Russian satellites have used electric propulsion for decades. [3]
A pulsed plasma thruster (PPT), also known as a Pulsed Plasma Rocket (PPR), or as a plasma jet engine (PJE), is a form of electric spacecraft propulsion. [1] PPTs are generally considered the simplest form of electric spacecraft propulsion and were the first form of electric propulsion to be flown in space, having flown on two Soviet probes (Zond 2 and Zond 3) starting in 1964. [2]
In chronological order, spacecraft are listed equipped with electric space propulsion. This includes both cruise engines and/or thrusters for attitude and orbit control. It is not specified whether the given engine is the sole means of propulsion or whether other types of engine are also used on a spacecraft.
It is sometimes referred to as Lorentz Force Accelerator (LFA) or (mostly in Japan) MPD arcjet. Generally, a gaseous material is ionized and fed into an acceleration chamber, where the magnetic and electric fields are created using a power source. The particles are then propelled by the Lorentz force resulting from the interaction between the ...
For rocket-like propulsion systems, this is a function of mass fraction and exhaust velocity; mass fraction for rocket-like systems is usually limited by propulsion system weight and tankage weight. [ citation needed ] For a system to achieve this limit, the payload may need to be a negligible percentage of the vehicle, and so the practical ...
Hall-effect thrusters (based on the discovery by Edwin Hall) are sometimes referred to as Hall thrusters or Hall-current thrusters. Hall-effect thrusters use a magnetic field to limit the electrons' axial motion and then use them to ionize propellant, efficiently accelerate the ions to produce thrust , and neutralize the ions in the plume.
Alternatively, radioisotopes may be used in a radioisotope electric rocket, [1] in which energy from nuclear decay is used to generate the electricity used to power an electric propulsion system. The basic idea is a development of existing radioisotope thermoelectric generator , or RTG, systems, in which the heat generated by decaying nuclear ...
A plasma propulsion engine is a type of electric propulsion that generates thrust from a quasi-neutral plasma. This is in contrast with ion thruster engines, which generate thrust through extracting an ion current from the plasma source, which is then accelerated to high velocities using grids/anodes. These exist in many forms (see electric ...