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.

CLEVELAND — A small robotic surveyor arrives to explore a near-Earth asteroid. Another robotic spacecraft is returning to Earth with a pristine comet surface sample. Meanwhile, a robotic explorer is ...

After spending nearly eight years crossing the inner Solar System, ESA and JAXA’s BepiColombo spacecraft has reached one of ...

NASA has successfully tested a lithium-fed magnetoplasmadynamic thruster reaching 120 kilowatts, 25 times more powerful than its current top ion engine. The breakthrough could drastically cut ...

Predicting the lifetime of an electric ion thruster is notoriously difficult. You have to account for the chamber wall effects, which are not present in space environments. Researchers within several ...

Sending an object to another star is still the stuff of science fiction. But some concrete missions could get us at least part way there. These "interstellar precursor missions" include a trip to the ...

Milan, 30 October 2024 – Create a prototype of an efficient aircraft capable of flying with ion propulsion. This is the aim of the IPROP project, led by Politecnico di Milano, and funded by the EU ...

Matter-antimatter annihilations produce about 10 billion times more energy per unit mass than chemical combustion (which ...

Look, if you're going to send nukes to an asteroid, it would be far more efficient (and safer) to send an RTG that powers an ion-propulsion engine or ten. Sure, you don't get the earth-shattering ...