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An electrostatic ion thruster is a design for ion thrusters, a highly efficient low-thrust spacecraft propulsion running on electrical power. These designs use high-voltage electrodes to accelerate ions with electrostatic forces. ==History== The ion engine was first demonstrated by German-born NASA scientist Ernst Stuhlinger,〔Ernst Stuhlinger, ''Ion Propulsion for Space Flight'' (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1964).〕 and developed in practical form by Harold R. Kaufman at NASA Lewis (now Glenn) Research Center from 1957 to the early 1960s. The use of ion propulsion systems were first demonstrated in space by the NASA Lewis "Space Electric Rocket Test" (SERT) I and II.〔J. S. Sovey, V. K. Rawlin, and M. J. Patterson, "Ion Propulsion Development Projects in U. S.: Space Electric Rocket Test 1 to Deep Space 1", ''Journal of Propulsion and Power, Vol. 17'', No. 3, May–June 2001, pp. 517-526.〕 These thrusters used mercury as the reaction mass. The first was SERT-1, launched July 20, 1964, which successfully proved that the technology operated as predicted in space. The second test, SERT-II, launched on February 3, 1970,〔NASA Glenn, "(SPACE ELECTRIC ROCKET TEST II (SERT II) ) (Accessed July 1, 2010)〕〔(SERT ) page at Astronautix (Accessed July 1, 2010)〕 verified the operation of two mercury ion engines for thousands of running hours.〔(Space Electric Rocket Test )〕 Despite the demonstration in the 1960s and 70s, though, they were rarely used before the late 1990s. NASA Glenn continued to develop electrostatic ion thrusters through the 1980s, developing the NASA Solar Technology Application Readiness (NSTAR) engine, that was used successfully on the Deep Space 1 probe, the first mission to fly an interplanetary trajectory using electric propulsion as the primary propulsion. It is currently flying the Dawn asteroid mission. Hughes Aircraft Company (now L-3 ETI) has developed the XIPS (Xenon Ion Propulsion System) for performing station keeping on its geosynchronous satellites (more than 100 engines flying). NASA is currently working on a 20-50 kW electrostatic ion thruster called HiPEP which will have higher efficiency, specific impulse, and a longer lifetime than NSTAR. Aerojet has recently completed testing of a prototype NEXT ion thruster.〔(Aerojet Successfully Completes Manufacturing and System Integration Milestones for NASA's NEXT Ion Engine Development Program )〕 At Giessen University and EADS the radio-frequency ion thrusters RIT were developed starting in the 1970s. RIT-10 engines are flying on ARTEMIS. Qinetiq (UK) has developed the T5 and T6 engines (Kaufman type), flying the GOCE mission (T5) and is baselined for BepiColombo mission (T6). In Japan, microwave engines µ10 flew on the Hayabusa mission. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Electrostatic ion thruster」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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