Displaying items by tag: NEXT (thruster project)

NEXT, the NASA Evolutionary Xenon Thruster project at Glenn Research Center aims to build an ion thruster about three times as powerful as the NSTAR used on Dawn and Deep Space 1.

By 2008, flight qualification models of the thruster were available. NEXT has 6.9 kW thruster power and 236 mN thrust, can be throttled down to 0.5 kW power, and has an ISP of 4190 seconds (compared to 3120 for NSTAR). The thrusters are manufactured at Aerojet and the power-management units at the ETI division of L3 Communications.