Ion Thruster Development Trends and Status in the United States

The current interest in ion thrusters for near-Earth and deep-space missions has occurred because of long-term development efforts yielding an understanding of the physical phenomena involved in thruster operation and hardware that is suited to a wide range of missions. Features of state-of-the-art thrusters are described in terms of the various physical processes that occur within them. Tradeoffs that must be considered to arrive at thruster designs suited to commercialization are discussed.