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NASA fires up powerful lithium-fed thruster for trips to Mars

phys.org·Melissa Pamer·about 1 month ago
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The prototype thruster is enclosed in JPL’s condensable metal propellant (CoMeT) vacuum facility, a unique national asset designed to safely test thrusters using metal-vapor propellants as part of potential megawatt-class electric propulsion systems. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech A technology that could propel crewed missions to Mars and robotic spacecraft throughout the solar system was recently put to the test at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. On Feb. 24, for the first time in years and at power levels exceeding any previous test in the United States, a team fired up an electromagnetic thruster that runs on lithium metal vapor. This prototype achieved power levels beyond the highest-power electric thrusters on any of the agency's current spacecraft. Valuable data from the first firing of this thruster will help inform an upcoming series of tests. "At NASA, we work on many things at once, and we haven't lost sight of Mars.…

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