Sentences with phrase «ion engines»

The idea is for students to provide «ideas and prototypes for Mars colonies, space suites, rockets, satellites, science and engineering centers, antennas, batteries, space food, ion engines, robots and ideas for Martian soil gardening» (as stated in the CAG conference presentation summary).

This two - stop tour of our solar system is made possible by Dawn's ion propulsion system, its three ion engines being much more efficient than chemical propulsion.

Propulsion: Solar - electric propulsion using three gimballed NSTAR ion engines and monopropellant reaction control system.

Ideas abounded: using ion engines to ferry up the components of a moon base; beaming power to robotic rovers on the Martian moon Phobos; attaching high - power Hall effect thrusters to the International Space Station (ISS) and putting it on a Mars cycler orbit; preplacing chemical rocket boosters along an interplanetary trajectory in advance so astronauts could pick them up along the way; using exploration pods like those in 2001: A Space Odyssey rather than space suits; instead of sending astronauts to an asteroid, bringing a (very small) asteroid to astronauts at the space station.

Mature electric propulsion devices such as ion engines, hall thrusters and magnetoplasmadynamic thrusters have electrodes exposed to the plasmas.

But the steady, gentle thrust of Dawn's ion engines allowed flight engineers to program a trajectory for the probe that gradually matched Vesta's path around the sun.

In science fiction such feats of interplanetary space navigation are routine, but the maneuver has never before been attempted in the real world — and it would be impossible without the ion engines.

Beaming Up to Vesta The ion engines that powered Dawn 1.7 billion miles to Vesta were once confined to science fiction (see the iconic Twin Ion Engine [TIE] fighters from Star Wars).

This is the first time ion engines have been used to send a spacecraft into orbit around a distant object in the solar system.

The Europeans seem more committed to the technology: ESA's upcoming unmanned Mercury craft, BeppiColombo, will use ion engines too.

The spacecraft's ion engines will bring it to a capture orbit around this 590 mile diameter dwarf planet on March 6th, 2015 — at a distance some 2.5 times further from the Sun than the Earth.

Singer says it could be potentially tapped to drive a tiny electrical generator, although the amount involved — about 10 - 24 joules per cycle — is so tiny that billions of single - ion engines would be needed to generate useful power.

is so tiny that billions of single - ion engines would be needed to generate useful power.

But Hayabusa has been hobbling home without the full use of its four ion engines, which ionise xenon gas and then use electric fields to accelerate the ions, providing a steady — though weak — thrust.

Now that Hayabusa in effect has two working ion engines again, it is back on track to return to Earth in June 2010, as had been planned before the 4 November glitch, JAXA says.

The thrust from each of Dawn's three ion engines is minuscule, a force equivalent to that of the weight of a piece of paper resting on the palm of your hand.

Ion engines work by stripping electrons from the atoms of an inert gas such as xenon, making them positively charged.

In fact, NASA had explored the technology as far back as the 1960s but lost interest as the agency's focus shifted to the space shuttle; ion engines had been developed only to make minor adjustments in the paths of Earth - orbiting satellites.

Russell got interested in ion engines in 1992, when he met Scott Benson, an engineer at NASA's Lewis Research Center in Cleveland (now the Glenn Research Center), who had recently begun experimenting with ion propulsion.

In gaining fuel efficiency, ion engines sacrifice thrust, the ability to deliver strong acceleration.

Founded in 2014 by MIT engineers Natalya Brikner and Louis Perna, this small satellite startup develops miniature ion engines for more efficient space propulsion.

Deep Space 1, an engineering test mission launched by NASA in 1998, demonstrated that an ion engine could be used to move around the solar system.

What makes Dawn's mission possible is a type of propulsion known as an ion engine.

A typical ion engine provides 10 times the specific impulse of a conventional solid - fuel booster (specific impulse can be thought of as a spaceship's miles - per - gallon rating).

With Benson he spent two years on a sequel of sorts, a lunar orbiter that used an ion engine, but the idea was passed over.

Dawn's ion engine, by contrast, has to accelerate the spacecraft continuously for months on end, spiraling outward until its trajectory matches Vesta's orbit.

Ion exhaust is much faster than the exhaust from a chemical rocket, so an ion engine can produce 10 times as much thrust from each pound of fuel.

NASA tried an ion engine once, on its experimental Deep Space 1 probe, but never followed up.

In early December the Hayabusa team restarted the probe's ion engine to begin the 180 - million - mile journey home.

The Dawn spacecraft used an efficient ion engine to visit Vesta (left) and Ceres (right) in this artist's rendering.

HAYABUSA is traveling through space using an ion engine.

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Not exact matches

Crabtree estimates lithium ion can get 50 % cheaper and more powerful, but that's still not suitable to widely displace fossil fuel — burning engines.

Engine tested: 60 - kilowatt - hour lithium - ion rechargeable battery with single - motor front - wheel drive; total system power output of 200 horsepower, and EPA - estimated range of 238 miles

Since February, GM has recalled 2.6 million older - model Chevrolet Cobalts, Saturn Ions and other small cars because their ignitions can slip out of the «run» position and shut off the engine.

The switches in older - model small cars such as the Chevrolet Cobalt and Saturn Ion can slip out of the «run» position and shut down the cars» engines.

The noise — a randomly fluctuating electric field — transfers energy to the ion, causing it to wiggle back and forth inside the trap and move toward the broad end of the funnel, making the engine's power stroke.

In the new engine, a calcium ion converts heat to motion when it is hit by noise coming from a set of electrodes.

To make their engine, the researchers first enclosed the ion (a calcium atom with one electron removed) inside an 8 - millimeter - long funnel - shaped electrical trap created by four electrodes.

By turning the noise on and off at just the right rate, the researchers can tune the engine so that the frequency of the ion's up - and - down motion exactly matches the trap's natural oscillation frequency.

The engine creates thrust by accelerating xenon ions — atoms stripped of one or more electrons, giving them a positive charge — through the negatively charged grid and spewing them out the back of the ship at 4,000 miles per hour.

Rayman's nonchalance was due to Dawn's innovative ion - engine propulsion system.

To stay in that exact spot, the craft will use a field emission electric propulsion engine, which ejects ions of liquid metal cesium to exert a miniscule thrust to counter tiny forces on the craft, such as the sunlight itself.

But these droplet engines have a problem: sometimes they form needle - like spikes that disrupt the way the thruster works — they get in the way of the ions flowing outward and turn the liquid to a gel.

This engine first ionizes the propellant gas, Xenon, then electrically accelerates and emits the ions, to propel itself forward.

April 14th The NEXT - C ion propulsion engine has successfully completed a Critical Design Review conducted by NASA and is planned for use on the agency's 2021 DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission.

The Honda Fit EV replaces the car's standard 1.5 - liter inline - four gas engine with a 92 - kW electric motor and 20 - kWh lithium - ion battery.

The car will combine a turbocharged four - cylinder engine of undisclosed displacement with an electric motor and lithium - ion battery pack, although further details have yet to be confirmed.

Once power is depleted from the lithium - ion battery pack, the Town & Country EV then activates a small 98 - hp gasoline engine, which serves as a generator.

Also improving efficiency are a range of new engines, with the greenest S E-hybrid Cayenne utilising a supercharged 3 - litre V6 petrol engine and lithium - ion battery powered electric motor to produce a combined 410bhp and 435 lb ft of torque.