NSTAR ion engine and Deep Space 1
Motor iónico NSTAR y Deep Space 1
- Date
- 24 de octubre de 1998 · confidence high
- Place
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, United States
- Credited to
- NASA / JPL (Marc Rayman and John Brophy)
- Field
- Movement
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Deep Space 1 was the first interplanetary probe driven mainly by a xenon ion engine, which offers minimal thrust but very low propellant use. It also tested autonomous navigation and flew by comet Borrelly in 2001.
Ion propulsion was tried earlier: NASA's SERT-1 (1964, suborbital) and Zond 2's plasma thrusters (1964). Deep Space 1 was the first interplanetary probe to use it as main propulsion.
What it led to
- the Dawn, Hayabusa and BepiColombo probes with electric propulsion
- autonomous image-based navigation (AutoNav)
- communications satellites with electric propulsion