NASA Facts

National Aeronautics and

Space Administration
Glenn Research Center
Cleveland, Ohio 44135–3191 FS-1999-03-008-GRC

Innovative Engines
Glenn Ion Propulsion Research Tames the Challenges of 21st
Century Space Travel
Ion propulsion, a futuristic technology that for decades lint are pulled to a pocket comb that has been given a
catapulted spacecraft through the pages of science fic- static electric charge by rubbing it on wool. The xenon
tion novels is now a reality. A Glenn-designed ion ions shoot past the grids at speeds of more than 88,000
engine, just 12 inches (30 centimeters) in diameter, is miles per hour (146,000 kilometers per hour), continu-
the main propulsion source for Deep Space 1—a 20th ing right on out the back of the engine and into space.
Century spacecraft now off on its primary mission to These exiting ions produce the thrust that propels the
validate technologies for 21st century spacecraft. spacecraft. A second electron-emitting cathode, down-
stream of the grids, neutralizes the positive charge of
An ion propulsion system converts power from the the ion beam to keep the spacecraft neutral with re-
spacecraft power system into the kinetic energy of an spect to its environment.
ionized gas jet. That jet, as it exits the spacecraft, pro-
pels it in the opposite direction. The system, or any At full throttle, the ion engine consumes about
electric propulsion system, consists of just four major 2300 watts of electrical power and puts out 0.02 pound
components: a computer for controlling and monitor- (90 millinewtons) of thrust. This is comparable to the
ing system performance; a power source (on Deep force exerted by a single sheet of paper resting on the
Space 1 (DS1) this source is the solar concentrator
arrays) a power processing unit for converting power
from the solar arrays to the correct voltages for the
engine; and the thruster, or engine itself.

Ion Engine Operation

The fuel used in DS1’s ion engine is xenon, a chemically
inert, colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas. The xenon
fuel fills a chamber ringed with magnets. When the ion
engine is running, electrons emitted from a cathode strike
atoms of xenon, knocking away one of the electrons
orbiting an atom’s nucleus and making it into an ion. The
magnets’ magnetic field controls the flow of electrons
and, by increasing the electrons’ residence time in the
chamber, increases the efficiency of the ionization.

At the rear of the chamber is a pair of metal grids that

are charged with 1280 volts of electric potential. The
force of this electric field exerts a strong “electrostatic” The ion engine prototype showing the faint blue glow of
pull on the xenon ions—much like the way that bits of charged atoms being emitted.
 1087 193

Overall design of an ion engine.

palm of a hand. Typical chemical on-board propulsion NASA Lewis Research Center) since the 1950’s. Ion
systems, on the other hand, produce far greater thrust— propulsion technology development at Glenn began
100 to 500 pounds (450 to 2250 newtons)—but for far when Dr. Harold Kaufman, now retired from NASA,
shorter times. A chemically propelled spacecraft gets designed and built the first broad-beam electron-
its big boost and then coasts at constant speed until the bombardment ion engine in 1959. It used mercury as
next boost. But an ion engine can produce its small fuel, but is otherwise similar to the engine flying today
thrust continually and thereby provide near constant on DS1. The laboratory tests of variations of the origi-
acceleration and, so, shorter travel times. nal ion engine were promising enough for Glenn to
begin suborbital flight tests in the early 1960’s. By
Ion propulsion is also 10 times more efficient than 1964, an ion engine launched on the Space Electric
chemical on-board propulsion systems. This greater Rocket Test I (SERT I) operated for all of its planned
efficiency means less propellant is needed for a mis- 31 minutes before returning to Earth.
sion. In turn, the spacecraft can be smaller and lighter,
and the launch costs lower. In 1970, two modified ion engines were launched on
SERT II; one operated for nearly three months and the
Deep Space 1 carries 178 pounds (81 kilograms) of other for more than five. Both engines suffered grid
xenon propellant, which is capable of fueling engine shorts, believed to have been be caused by debris from
operation at one-half throttle for over 20 months. Ion thruster grid wear, before the planned end of the mis-
propulsion will increase the speed of DS1 by sion. After an attitude control maneuver cleared its grid
7900 miles per hour (12,700 kilometers per hour) over of the short in 1974, one of the engines was started
the course of the mission. and was operated on and off for six more years.

The information learned from these genuine space suc-

Early Work at Glenn cess stories was used to refine and improve the tech-
Electric propulsion technology, which includes ion nology that today flies on communications satellites
engines, has been studied at Glenn (at that time the and, of course, on DS1.
Lessons Learned
Early ion engines used mercury or cesium instead of
xenon as propellants. But both proved to be difficult
to work with. At room temperature, mercury is a liq-
uid and cesium is a solid, making them easy to store.
But both had to be heated to turn them into gases. Then
there was the cleanup. After exiting the ion engine,
some mercury or cesium atoms would condense onto
the ground test hardware, causing numerous cleanup
difficulties. In the 1970’s NASA managers decided that
if ion propulsion research was to continue, it would
have to be environmentally clean and less hazardous.
Glenn researchers soon turned to xenon as a cleaner,
simpler fuel for ion engines, with many of the same
characteristics as mercury. (Glenn researchers had
worked on cesium ion engines in the mid 1950’s.) Ground test setup in the Glenn Research Center's
Electric Propulsion Laboratory.
One of the first xenon ion-engine-like devices ever flown
was a Hughes Research Laboratories design launched in One of the challenges was developing the compact,
1979 on the Air Force Geophysics Laboratory’s Space- lightweight power processing unit that converts power
craft Charging at High Altitude (SCATHA) satellite. It from the solar arrays into the voltages needed by the
was used, not to propel the spacecraft, but to change its engine. NSTAR team contractor, Hughes designed a
electrical charge. Researchers then studied the effects 2500-watt power processor that weighs a little over
of the “charging” on spacecraft system performance. 33 pounds (15 kilograms) and has an efficiency of
In 1997, Hughes launched the first commercial use of 93 percent.
a xenon ion engine on the communications satellite
PanAmSat 5. This ion engine is used for stationkeeping,
Deep Space 1
that is, keeping the satellite in its proper orbit and ori-
entation with respect to Earth. The first spacecraft in NASA’s New Millennium Pro-
gram of missions to flight-test new technologies, DS1
blasted into space in October 1998 aboard a Delta II
The NTSAR Program launch vehicle. Now on its own and headed toward a
In the early 1990s, NASA identified improved electric flyby of asteroid 1992 KD, 12 new technologies aboard
propulsion as an enabling technology for future deep the spacecraft are being tested for use on future space
space missions. Glenn engineers believed that their ion science missions. Among those 12 is DS1’s main pro-
engine technology was the closest to being ready for pulsion source, the Glenn-designed NSTAR ion engine.
long, complex missions. NASA Glenn partnered with
the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in the NASA So- The following December the spacecraft was 26 times
lar Electric Power Technology Application Readiness farther away from Earth than the moon. The ion engine
(NSTAR) project. The purpose of NSTAR was to de- had surpassed it performance goals by twice thrusting
velop a xenon-fueled ion propulsion system for deep continuously for over 330 hours, the longest continuous
space missions. Glenn developed the engines and thrusting of any other deep space propulsion system.
power processors, and JPL was responsible for the de-
velopment of the xenon feed system, the diagnostics,
and integration of the hardware into the spacecraft. The Future
The next New Millennium Program mission to use
In 1996, the prototype engine built at Glenn endured Glenn ion engine technology will be Deep Space
8000 hours of operation in a JPL vacuum chamber that 4/Champollion, which will rendezvous (match orbits)
simulates conditions of outer space. The results of the with the periodic Comet Tempel 1. Three NSTAR ion
prototyping were used to define the design of flight engines (with minor modifications) will provide the
hardware that was built for DS1 by Hughes Electron primary propulsion for the spacecraft. The planned
Dynamics Division and Spectrum Astro Inc. launch date is in 2003.
 Ion engines with extended performance and higher
power NSTAR engines, in the 5-kilowatt and 0.04-pound-
thrust range, are candidates for propelling spacecraft
to Europa, Pluto, and other small bodies in deep space.
But only if the cost saving from using smaller, less
expensive launch vehicles, shorter trip times and, thus,
lower mission operations costs can be demonstrated.
Glenn engineers plan to achieve higher ion engine power
levels by retrofitting NSTAR engine with enhanced
components.

Low power (100 to 500 watts) systems can be used to

deliver miniaturized robot spacecraft (launched using
small, inexpensive rockets) to interesting space bod-
ies including comets, asteroids, and planets. Such mis-
Artists conception of Deep Space 1 in flight. sions will allow for the delivery of instruments,
sensors, and mobile vehicles to the bodies. Labora-
Glenn engineers are also responding to and anticipat- tory tests on low-power, light-weight ion propulsion
ing mission planners’ needs by developing both higher system components and subsystems are now under-
and lower power ion propulsion systems. way at Glenn.

For more information, visit Glenn Deep Space 1

web site at:
http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/PAO/ds1.htm

Or contact the
Information and Publications Office
MS 8-1
NASA Glenn Research Center
Cleveland, Ohio 44135
(216) 433-5573

B-0885
Mar 99