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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]
Space Electric Rocket Test, suborbital (31 min), the first demonstration of an ion engine in space - only the mercury engine by NASA was operated Program 661A Flight B: 29 Aug 1964: 29 Aug 1964: Ion engine: 1: Cesium: USAF: EOS: Suborbital, experimental test (19 min operation) Zond 2: 30 Nov 1964: 14 May 1965: Pulsed plasma thruster: PTFE ...
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.
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]
Atmosphere-breathing electric propulsion, or air-breathing electric propulsion, shortly ABEP, [1] is a propulsion technology for spacecraft, which could allow thrust generation in low orbits without the need of on-board propellant, by using residual gases in the atmosphere as propellant. Atmosphere-breathing electric propulsion could make a new ...
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 ...
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]
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.