A Brief Look at the Ion Drive

Montana Gates
Physics 1010

A Brief Look at the Ion Drive

A Brief Look at the Ion Drive

The idea of ionized propulsion is nearly a century old. It was first proposed by the
Russian theoretician Konstantin Eduardovitch Tsiolkovsky in 1911: It is possible that in time
we may use electricity to produce a large velocity for the particles ejected from a rocket device.
This being the main function of the ion drive, it is fair to say that this was ahead of its time. The
first time the idea was actually put to test was in 1920, when Robert H. Goddard filed for a patent
to an apparatus he had designed for the purpose of testing this new idea of electrical propulsion.
This was something that he himself had also been contemplating for many years (Goddard, R.
(1920, March 1) - "Report Concerning Further Developments"). However when he had first
conceived of the idea, Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity had not yet been widely
disseminated. However, he was aware at that time, early into his investigation into the possibility
of EP, that the electron increases in mass as it accelerates closer to the speed of light, possibly
becoming infinitely massive, but held out hope that it was still somehow possible to increase its
speed to the velocity of light. Luckily, he later discovered that this would not be necessary for
this new method of propulsion to be successful (Choueiri, E. (2004, April 1). A Critical History
of Electric Propulsion...).

The study of electric propulsion seemed to go silent after Goddard moved onto work with
the Smithsonian to help develop chemically propelled rockets after the United States' entrance

A Brief Look at the Ion Drive

into The First World War. Though EP did get preserved in the minds of scientists and readers
thanks to Science Fiction writers such as the German writer Oberth, it would be more than a
decade before serious work into developing a functional ion drive would commence(Choueiri, E.
(2004, April 1). A Critical History of Electric Propulsion...).

The first operational vehicle to be propelled by an ion drive was the SERT-I. It was
launched from Wallops Island, Virginia in July of 1964. Though only one of the two thrusters
were operational after launch, due to a high-voltage short circuit, the vehicle remained airborne
for a full 31 minutes. The second vehicle in the Space Electric Rocket Test series of vehicles to
be launched was the SERT-II. It was launched into orbit at an altitude of 1,000 kilometers from
the Earth's surface in February of 1970. This vehicle was designed with the much more daunting
task of staying in orbit for a minimum of 6 months. The vehicle performed better than expected
and was operational all the way up until 1981 (Sovey, J. S., Rawlin, V. K., and Patterson, M. J.
(2001)).

As is the nature of science, you must always be grasping at what ever is just beyond what
you've already reached. For the natural progression of this technology, as it was ideal for
traveling great distances, an interplanetary vehicle was developed and birthed on October 24,
1998. It was given the name Deep Space 1. Its three year mission, to explore the comet Borrelly
and to test out new and advanced technologies. The former only being an additional proposal to
extend the DS1 mission as it had performed exceedingly well up to that point. Along its mission
it tested the capabilities of such things as autonomous navigation, and self-repair software, as
well as taking a turn from its predecessors and using ionized Xenon gas instead of Mercury as the

A Brief Look at the Ion Drive

previous SERT vehicles were designed to use. After its successful mission, it was placed into a
heliocentric orbit (Deep Space 1. (n.d.).). This mission helped prove the importance, viability,
and reliability of electronic propulsion, particularly the capabilities of the ion drive.

The next milestone in ion propulsion is NASA's Evolutionary Xenon Thruster. As of

September 2013, it completed a 5.5 year consecutive test, running continuously for up to 48,000
hours. During this experiment, NEXT used approximately 0.086% the amount of fuel that a
chemically propelled rock would have used to reach the same momentum. This new line of
thrusters is expected to be able to reach a maximum speed of 90,000 miles per hour, with a lifeexpectancy of years, while under continuous operation (Winder, J. (2013, September 16).). These
new propulsion systems are currently being considered to be apart of the upcoming Discovery
mission to Saturn. NEXT is currently the choice candidate as it has consistently outperformed the
modern generation of the NSTAR ion propulsion system. If it is selected for this mission, it's
expected to make use of a Earth or Venus gravity assist to shorten the amount of time required to
get to Saturn. (Benson, Riehl, Oleson. (n.d.)).

Recently the NASA spacecraft Dawn reach its second protoplanet, Ceres. It was launched
in September 2007 with the current NSTAR ion drives(Dawn Spacecraft.
http://www.aerospaceguide.net...). Its previous target was the protoplanet Vesta which it orbited
for approximately 6 months before traveling to Ceres. Prior to the ion drive, this would not have
been possible. Previous missions such as Voyager, were limited to flybys of targets only, as their
earlier propulsion systems couldn't allow for a sustained monitoring of planetary bodies by way
of entering into an orbit around them(Thompson, C. (2015, March 6)). For now, it looks as

A Brief Look at the Ion Drive

though the only way to achieve escape velocity is through using a chemical propellant to get our
interplanetary vehicles into orbit, but there's just simply no way for the conventional propulsion
systems of the past to compete with the modern ion drive when it comes to sustained impulse.

A Brief Look at the Ion Drive

List of Cited Works

Choueiri, E. (2004, April 1). A Critical History of Electric Propulsion: The First 50 Years
(19061956). Retrieved from http://alfven.princeton.edu/papers/choueiriJPP04a.pdf

Goddard, R. (1920, March 1). March 1920 - "Report Concerning Further Developments"
in Space Travel. Retrieved from http://siarchives.si.edu/history/exhibits/stories/march1920-report-concerning-further-developments-space-travel

Sovey, J. S., Rawlin, V. K., and Patterson, M. J. (2001). Ion Propulsion Development
Projects in U. S.: Space Electric Rocket Test 1 to Deep Space 1., Journal of Propulsion
and Power, Vol. 17(No. 3), Pp. 517-526.

Deep Space 1. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://science.nasa.gov/missions/deep-space-1/

Winder, J. (2013, September 16). NASA DEMONSTRATES THE POWER OF ION

PROPULSION. Retrieved from http://sen.com/news/nasa-powers-ion-engine-for-fiveand-a-half-years-on-just-860-kg-of-propellant

Benson, Riehl, Oleson. (n.d.). NEXT Ion Propulsion System Configurations and
Performance for Saturn System Exploration. Retrieved from
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20080006604.pdf

Dawn Spacecraft. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://www.aerospaceguide.net/spacecraft/dawn.html

A Brief Look at the Ion Drive

Thompson, C. (2015, March 6). Dawn Spacecraft Arrives At Dwarf Planet Ceres.
Retrieved from http://www.penny4nasa.org/2015/03/06/dawn-spacecraft-arrives-atdwarf-planet-ceres/