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Electric/Cesium

Propellant

Original archive entry. The text, images and links below are kept as they were written.

Electric/Cesium propellant. An engine were cesium propellant is ionized and electrically accelerated to produce thrust. No electric engines reached the operational stage using it.

Subtopics

  • ATS 5 cm EOS electric/cesium rocket engine. Flown in 1968-1969. Thruster for the ATS-4 and ATS-5 tests; consisted of two contact ionization engines using cesium propellant.
  • ATS 8 cm EOS electric/cesium rocket engine. Flown in 1974. Thruster for the ATS-6 test; consisted of two electron bombardment engines using cesium propellant. The thruster anode diameter was 8 cm, and a cesiated tungsten neutralizer was used.
  • Program 661 EOS electric/cesium rocket engine. Flew 1962-1964. Cesium contact ion propulsion system used on three sub-orbital flight tests aboard Blue Scout Junior launch vehicles.
  • Sert-I Cesium Hughes electric/cesium rocket engine. In Development, 1962-1964. 8 cm diameter cesium contact ion engine was designed to operate at 0.6 kW.
  • Snapshot engine EOS electric/cesium rocket engine. In Development, 1962-1964. Launched on Blue Scout Junior launch vehicle on Snapshot test; a contact ionization engine; thruster anode diameter was 5 cm.
  • Stuhlinger Mars 1957 American manned Mars expedition. Study 1957. In 1954 Ernst Stuhlinger conceived the first Mars expedition using solar-electric propulsion.
  • Stuhlinger Mars 1962 American manned Mars expedition. By 1962 Ernst Stuhlinger's ion-drive Mars expedition had evolved within the Research Projects Division into five 150 m long spacecraft, housing a total crew of 15. A much shorter 475 day mission time was planned.

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