Deep Space 1
Explanation:
Going gently into the night,
Deep Space 1's ion drive
has been running smoothly since it was
restarted on November 24.
How powerful is
this high-tech spacecraft's ion propulsion system?
At full throttle the engine will consume about 2,100 watts of
electrical power generated by solar panels and produce
about 1/50th of a pound of thrust.
This is roughly equivalent to the force you exert when holding up
a single sheet of paper!
While clearly not suitable for vehicles which need rapid acceleration,
ion propulsion is advantageous to use for missions involving
asteroid and comet rendezvous.
For these long
space voyages
which ultimately require a lot of energy,
the continuous, gentle nudge of an ion engine easily wins out
over brief, powerful, but less efficient blasts from chemical rockets.
Pictured here during ground tests, the
Deep Space 1 craft is now about three million miles
from planet Earth.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
