43 Ion Engine Diagram
Ion Engines - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics The ion engine used 2100 W of this power. The xenon ions travel up to 35 km/s which means the specific impulse can reach a value of up to I s p = 3570 s and the engine produced 92 mN of thrust. Due to the engine's high efficiency it needed only 81 kg (178 lbs) of xenon propellant to achieve its mission. Anatomy of an Ion Engine - NASA The greater the exhaust speed, the more efficient the rocket engine. Image right: Employing a complex commingling of solar derived electric power and xenon gas, Dawn's ion engines must fire for months at a time to propel as well as steer Dawn. Over their eight year, almost 4-billion-mile lifetime, these frugal powerhouses will fire cumulatively ...
Improved ion engines will open up the outer Solar System Diagram of a Hall effect ion engine (Image: Wikipedia) You can see in the cross-section diagram above that the fuel plasma fills the anode and gas distributor. At low thrust, the small p...