Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
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]
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.
Suborbital tests were conducted during the 1960s and in 1964, and the engine was sent into a suborbital flight aboard the Space Electric Rocket Test-1 (SERT-1). [11] [12] It successfully operated for the planned 31 minutes before falling to Earth. [13] This test was followed by an orbital test, SERT-2, in 1970. [14] [15]
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]
A nuclear electric rocket (more properly nuclear electric propulsion) is a type of spacecraft propulsion system where thermal energy from a nuclear reactor is converted to electrical energy, which is used to drive an ion thruster or other electrical spacecraft propulsion technology.
NASA and the U.S. military plan to test a nuclear-powered rocket engine in space as early as 2027, potentially revolutionizing how people travel the cosmos in the coming decades.The two agencies ...
With a conventional chemical propulsion system, 2% of a rocket's total mass might make it to the destination, with the other 98% having been consumed as fuel. With an electric propulsion system, 70% of what's aboard in low Earth orbit can make it to a deep-space destination. [23] However, there is a trade-off.
Get AOL Mail for FREE! Manage your email like never before with travel, photo & document views. Personalize your inbox with themes & tabs. You've Got Mail!