CLEVELAND — A small robotic surveyor arrives to explore a near-Earth asteroid. Another robotic spacecraft is returning to Earth with a pristine comet surface sample. Meanwhile, a robotic explorer is ...

What do scanning electron microscopes and satellites have in common? On the face of things, not much, but after seeing [Zachary Tong]’s latest video on liquid metal ion thrusters, we see that they ...

A group of French physicists has optimized a type of ion thruster to significantly extend its lifetime: the new development made it sturdy enough to be able withstand a long trip into deep space. Such ...

mileage on the engine increases. That wisdom does not hold true for NASA’s ion engine, whose odometer continues to spin to the delight of its owners. This little engine that could has more than made ...

Share on Facebook (opens in a new window) Share on X (opens in a new window) Share on Reddit (opens in a new window) Share on Hacker News (opens in a new window) Share on Flipboard (opens in a new ...

The European Space Agency (ESA) has successfully tested a prototype ion engine powered by air that could provide propulsion for orbiting satellites almost indefinitely, and could even help power ...

In September 2007, NASA’s Dawn spacecraft departed Earth heading for the asteroid belt, with the mission to study two protoplanets located there, Vesta and Ceres. The probe is currently in its final ...

In a development that could help slow the proliferation of space junk, the orbit of a communications satellite has for the first time been altered using solid iodine as a propellant. The Beihangkonshi ...