ELECTRICAL PROPULSION

ABSTRACT
Electric or ion propulsion is the newest propulsion system that NASA has put into successful operation. The Deep Space 1 mission used the ion engine as its primary propulsion system and tested its capabilities for the 21st century. Its advantages over conventional propulsion include lower fuel weight, much higher fuel efficiency, and longer operational life. The NSTAR engine that operated on Deep Space 1 used electromagnetic forces to accelerate positively charged xenon ions through a potential difference. The potential difference was produced by circular electromagnets that pushed the xenon ions resulting in an ion stream that exited at the exhaust end of the spacecraft at high speed. The thrust output of the ion engine is very small, but the fuel efficiency is an order of a magnitude higher than chemical rockets. In propulsion systems, fuel efficiency is technically referred to as specific impulse or the amount of momentum increase for a given amount of fuel consumption. Given a sufficiently long mission time, an ion engine is able to achieve speeds far greater than any chemical rocket. The use of the ion engine will undoubtedly be the best choice of propulsion for space probes in the 21st century.

RISHAL MATHEW Roll No 47 S7, EEE