Overview
- Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory fired a prototype lithium-fed magnetoplasmadynamic thruster to a peak of 120 kilowatts, the highest power yet for an electric thruster test in the United States.
- The test took place inside JPL’s CoMeT vacuum chamber built for metal-vapor propellants, where the tungsten center electrode glowed above 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit during five starts.
- The team is targeting 500 kilowatts to 1 megawatt per thruster in upcoming trials to move toward multi-megawatt propulsion needed for crewed Mars flights.
- NASA says the system could cut launch mass, carry larger payloads, and shorten travel time if paired with a nuclear power source, though long, hot runs will stress materials and cooling.
- The effort, funded by NASA’s Space Nuclear Propulsion project and led by JPL with Princeton and NASA Glenn, builds on MPD research dating to the 1960s and on electric propulsion’s big fuel savings over chemical rockets.