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What is the maximum thrust an Ion Engine can achieve?

Why is it plasma engine or Ion engine have so low thrust that they can never be use to take stuff into spac?

  • So I know there was talk at NASA in the future that they may use plasma engine or Ion engine in space but from what I was reading plasma engine or Ion engine do not have enough thrust to take people or cargo into space ? Why is that ? Why is it that plasma engine or Ion engine can only be used into space but cannot take people or cargo into space ? What about Dumbo engine a very very very massively plasma engine or Ion engine would that be enough thrust to take people or cargo into space ? Or is the plasma engine or Ion engine to crude and that is why it has very little thrust.

  • Answer:

    The ion engine uses a very small amount of fuel, although it isn't fuel you burn. Electricity is used to speed up ions massively to provide EXTREMELY small amounts of thrust by expelling the ions very quickly. The only reason this is a viable option for space travel at all (considering how little thrust is gives) is because, as you probably know, there is nothing to slow you down in space. So with nuclear power source you can have a ion thruster running for quite a long time, with refining of this technology (it may alright be at this point, as the last i read about the ion engine was 5+ years ago) it will be more effective for long space missions then chemical rockets. Both because of it's extremely long lasting fuel supply AND because it will be cheaper on any space flights requiring a nuclear reactor. The reason it cant take anything INTO space is because its EXTREMELY low amount of thrust. I'm no expert, but it probably wouldn't even provide enough thrust to knock you over if you weren't expecting it. The last time i read about an ion engine it wasn't even able to provide a pound of pressure. Your more likely to get into space by jumping as high as you can or standing on your toes and reaching into the sky xD

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The amount of energy needed to lift objects from the Earth's surface to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is very high. So far only chemical fuels have the required energy density to be usable - so rocket engines are needed for this, The other alternative is to use Jet Engines until the atmosphere becomes too thin and then convert to rocket engines. Ion engines can be used once in orbit because much lower power is needed to take a spacecraft from LEO to higher orbits or into deep space. An Ion engine can also be powered by a nuclear reactor which allows it to work a long way from the Sun. Other ways to power spacecraft would include solar sails (very thin metallic film sail that uses the solar wind to power the ship away from the Sun).

The_Ends_Of_Invention

Because it is hard to generate and direct large quantities of either ions or plasma. The high efficiency of these engies comes from the high exhaust speed because the materials have been accelerated electromagnetically. To get high thrust you need a lot of material. Ion engines are accelerating individual atoms (well ionized ones at any rate) but generating ion currents that will transport kilograms of ions is well-nigh impossible. You'd need millions of amperes of ion current. It all boils down to the fact that the charge on the electron is 1.6E-19 while Avogadro's number is 6.02E+23.

Peter T

Plasma can only exist in a vacuum so it cannot be used at sea level Plasma engines are not crude, they are electronic devices, unlike chemical rockets which are so crude they were used in china 2000 years ago

Alan

The plasma state is the ionic state of gas and there required so much energy to convert the gas into plasma. No such energy is available in earth.

Sagar

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