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 ...

The community is taking maneuver more seriously — and that shift is overdue. But the maneuver conversation still carries a blind spot: Propulsion is treated too generically. Whether a spacecraft can ...

You don’t see many ionic thrusters out in the world these days. The high-voltage devices are interesting pieces of technology, but they aren’t all that relevant to our normal lives. They’re gradually ...

Engineers have built and tested a drone that flies using electrically charged air molecules instead of motors, propellers, or any other mechanical moving parts. The technology, known as ...

Engineers at MIT have successfully tested a hybrid propulsion system for small satellites that combines the raw punch of ...

LYON, France–Ion-X, a startup company betting on the use of ionic micropropulsion for small satellites, is planning to deliver its first commercial motor in 2026. In space operations, new requirements ...

A team of researchers at MIT has demonstrated a propulsion technology that could dramatically expand the capabilities of ...

GOCE’s sophisticated electric ion propulsion system has been switched on and confirmed to be operating normally, marking another crucial milestone in the satellite’s post-launch commissioning phase.

According to Undefined Technologies, which just debuted a new outdoor flight test video, Florida's "silent" flying dish-rack, propelled by ionic propulsion, is scheduled to go into general production ...

Small pinwheel type ion motors fall into the category of a fun science experiment or something neat to do with high voltage, but Hackaday’s own [Manuel Rodriguez-Achach] added a neat twist that ...

Click to open image viewer. This device was used by the American rocket pioneer Dr. Robert H. Goddard (1882-1945) during the period 1924-28 to determine the feasibility of ion propulsion for space ...