Connecting you with the University of Missouri’s innovative research and creative activityActually, It Is Rocket Science
A visit with Craig Kluever, Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Published: October 24, 2007 - Topics:
mission_design
research
electric_propulsion
space_travel
chemical_propulsion
The Current Status of Electric Propulsion
Topics:
electric_propulsion
Deep_Space_I
The first space mission to use electric propulsion was Deep Space I. Launched in 1998, it was a test mission for electric propulsion, one on which a lot of people worked to see the mission to success. “It had a very modest target,” Kluever says – basically just to fly by an asteroid – “and it was able to complete that mission.” Since then there have been some very big plans to send spacecraft to Jupiter or other outer planets using electric propulsion. “But the problem with electric propulsion (and NASA) is that these technologies cycle,” observes Kluever. “Sometimes they’re politically in favor and sometimes not. Right now they’re out of favor,” largely due to budgetary restraints.