NASA's Project Prometheus

Dwayne Brown
Headquarters, Washington
(Phone: 202/358-1726)

Lori J. Rachul
Glenn Research Center, Cleveland
(Phone: 216/433-8806)


November 20, 2003
RELEASE : 03-377


NASA Successfully Tests Ion Engine

NASA's Project Prometheus recently reached an important milestone with the first successful test of an engine that could lead to revolutionary propulsion capabilities for space exploration missions throughout the solar system and beyond.

The test involved a High Power Electric Propulsion (HiPEP) ion engine using commercial utility electrical power. The event marked the first in a series of performance tests to demonstrate new high-velocity and high-power thrust needed for use in nuclear electric propulsion (NEP) applications. ....

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This thing is awesome and will revolutionize many aspects of space travel. Though this is relatively small engine type, I would assume that a much more "umph" ion drive will be required to travel to Mars effeciently.....
With this thing, if the specs and data is close to being true, wouldn't this allow a spacecraft to travel to Mars in approx. 8 days?

Found these related articles:
From July 2003
"NASA's Ion Engine Runs for Nearly 5 Years: No Problems"
Link:
www.spaceref.com...



And another from the same time period:
"An Ion Drive for Deep Space 1"
Link:
antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov...


regards
seekerof

Thats amazing, good links too. 8 Days to mars, imagine the upcoming possibilities with that kind of technology

Wonder if we can use it for space travel soon enough.

When are they going to test it in real flight situations?