Sentences with phrase «ion propulsion»

A short while later, the Europa mission came back to life, when it was linked with an experimental ion propulsion system powered by a nuclear fission reactor, the pet idea of Sean O'Keefe, then NASA's administrator.

«One of the features of ion propulsion is that it essentially allows you to fly on a smaller launch vehicle, at lower cost, to destinations that would require a larger vehicle with chemical propulsion,» says Benson.

In two workshops, Dawn engineering using ion propulsion was highlihgted piloting a kinesthetic model of coding the spacecraft's trajectory to its destinations.

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.

Dawn Spacecraft used solar electric ion propulsion to first rendezvous and orbit Vesta and then travelled to Vesta.

Dawn spacecraft is NASA's first purely scientific mission to be powered by ion propulsion and is Orbital's first planetary mission.

Three of the fleet's 109 pickups equipped with plug - in hybrid powertrains sustained damage when their prototype 12.9 - kWh lithium - ion propulsion battery packs overheated.

Gonzalez faces a challenge in upsizing ion propulsion so that it can work to supply human - scale missions to Mars.

Much of the credit for Smart - 1's success belongs to physicist Jose Antonio Gonzalez del Amo, who has spent the past 16 years developing ion propulsion at the Noordwijk laboratories.

The review panel also raised concerns about a number of technical problems, including the reliability of the novel ion propulsion system.

Powered by a uniquely capable ion propulsion system, Dawn also orbited and explored Vesta, the second most massive body in the asteroid belt.

Dawn, the second scientific mission to be powered by an advanced NASA technology known as ion propulsion, is the first NASA mission to orbit two solar system targets beyond the Moon.

«We would not be able to orbit and explore these two worlds without ion propulsion,» Mase said.

-- Principal Investigator: Dr. Christopher Russell, UCLA — Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, CA (Project management, system engineering, ion propulsion subsystem, science operations and spacecraft flight operations)-- Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida (Launch services via NASA Launch Services Contract).

Ion propulsion provided the additional velocity needed to reach Vesta once the spacecraft separated from the Delta II Rockt.

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.

Dawn's ion propulsion system is based on the technology successfully demonstrated by Deep Space 1.

At first Russell's instinct was to use ion propulsion to go back to the moon.

Dawn spacecraft is NASA's first purely scientific mission powered by solar electric ion propulsion.

Powered by ion propulsion, Dawn is the first spacecraft to orbit two celestial bodies to better understand how the solar system evolved.

This electric vehicle uses a 16.5 - kWh lithium - ion propulsion battery rechargeable energy storage system with a liquid thermal management system and active control.

Using its ion propulsion system, Dawn will enter orbit around Ceres on March 6.

Russell suspects that ion propulsion was deemed too risky — it had never been used on a space probe.

Ion propulsion is a godsend for Europe's space program: cheap, reliable, and extremely efficient.

«Ion propulsion isn't limited by how much energy is stored on board,» says NASA engineer Marc Rayman.

ARTEMIS began taking data in 2003, after its ion propulsion unit boosted it from the incorrect orbit it had been placed in after it launched in 2001.

Thanks to its ion propulsion system, Dawn is the first spacecraft ever targeted to orbit two deep - space destinations.

* 10.09.07 NASA's Dawn spacecraft successfully completed the first test of its ion propulsion system in early October 2007.

Ion propulsion was also used during asteroid proximity operations to raise and lower the orbit altitude.

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.

The solar arrays provide power to the ion propulsion system, in addition to operating power for the spacecraft and instruments.

Electric propulsion and ion propulsion are the recent additions in this discipline.