British electric drive specialist Helix builds some of the most power-dense electric motors in the world. Now it's working to ...

It sounds like a NASA pipe dream: a new spacecraft thruster that’s up to 40 percent more power efficient than today’s. Even better, its fuel costs less than a thousandth as much and weighs an eighth ...

Researchers just test-fired a new type of ion thruster that “breathes” air, and one day, it could help humanity reach Mars and beyond. Better propulsion systems are key to advancing our space ...

Hall thrusters (HTs) are used in earth-orbiting satellites, and also show promise to propel robotic spacecraft long distances, such as from Earth to Mars. The propellant in a HT, usually xenon, is ...

An extrapolation technique aims to address the gap between Hall effect thruster performance in space and in laboratory ...

Imperial College is developing a rocket thruster called the Iridium Catalysed Electrolysis CubeSat Thruster (ICE-Cube Thruster) that is so small that it can only be fabricated using techniques ...

Spacecraft rocket engines come in a variety of forms and use a variety of fuels, but most rely on chemical reactions to blast propellants out of a nozzle, with the reaction force driving the ...

Researchers from the Harbin Institute of Technology in China have created a new inlet design for Cylindrical shaped Hall thrusters (CHTs) that may significantly increase the thrust and allows ...

Phase Four's Second Generation RF Thruster, Maxwell Block 2, firing in one of the company's vacuum chambers. Credit: Phase Four PARIS — Phase Four’s Maxwell Block 2 radio-frequency thruster has been ...

LOGAN, Utah — Stellar Exploration, a space technology company based in San Luis Obispo, California, is in the midst of qualification testing of a miniature propulsion system for planetary ...

A statite (a portmanteau of static and satellite) is a hypothetical type of artificial satellite that employs a solar sail to continuously modify its orbit in ways that gravity alone would not allow.

For its crazy 2020 asteroid capture mission and other projects, NASA is developing next-gen "Hall effect thrusters" to corral an asteroid and put it into the moon's orbit. At the same time, the ...