BepiColombo, the joint ESA/JAXA spacecraft on a mission to Mercury, is now firing its thrusters for the first time in flight. On Sunday, BepiColombo carried out the first successful manoeuver using ...

In 2018, Elon Musk put a Tesla in space. Like many of the billionaire’s antics, it was a publicity stunt. However, it pointed to an undeniable truth: the future of space travel is electric. Most ...

What do scanning electron microscopes and satellites have in common? On the face of things, not much, but after seeing [Zachary Tong]’s latest video on liquid metal ion thrusters, we see that they ...

Rockets might be fiery fun, but they’re big, bulky, and heavy. Ion thrusters, sci-fi as they sound, are real and these penny-sized ones are probably the future of steering small satellites in orbit.

Professor Wonho Choe of the Department of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering developed an artificial intelligence technique that can predict the thrust performance of Hall Effect ion thrusters (i.e., ...

The lower box is one the earliest spacecraft ion thrusters (from EOS circa 1962), and on top is a new arrival, a modern marvel from the SpaceX Starlink satellites used for on orbit maneuvering. SpaceX ...

A rendezvous with the metallic asteroid 16 Psyche is scheduled for 2029. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. NASA's mission to the ...

LOGAN, Utah–Water-based thruster specialist Pale Blue plans to demonstrate an ion thruster in early 2025. The Japanese company has delivered its water-based ion thruster demonstrator to the Japan ...

Pale Blue was awarded grants worth up to $27 million from Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) to develop miniature water-based ion and Hall-effect thrusters ...