Ion Thruster - Missions - Planned Missions

Planned Missions

In addition, several missions are planned to use ion thrusters in the next few years.

BepiColombo

ESA will launch the BepiColombo mission to Mercury in 2015. It uses ion thrusters in combination with swing-bys to get to Mercury, where a chemical rocket will be fired for orbit insertion.

LISA Pathfinder

LISA Pathfinder is an ESA spacecraft to be launched in 2013. It will not use ion thrusters as its primary propulsion system, but will use both colloid thrusters and FEEP for very precise altitude control—the low thrusts of these propulsion devices make it possible to move the spacecraft incremental distances very accurately. It is a test for the possible LISA mission.

International Space Station

As of March 2011, a future launch of an Ad Astra VF-200 200 kW VASIMR electromagnetic thruster was being considered for placement and testing on the International Space Station. The VF-200 is a flight version of the VX-200. Since the available power from the ISS is less than 200 kW, the ISS VASIMR will include a trickle-charged battery system allowing for 15 min pulses of thrust. Testing of the engine on ISS is valuable, because ISS orbits at a relatively low altitude and experiences fairly high levels of atmospheric drag, making periodic boosts of altitude necessary. Currently, altitude reboosting by chemical rockets fulfills this requirement. If the tests of VASIMR reboosting of the ISS goes according to plan, the increase in specific impulse could mean that the cost of fuel for altitude reboosting will be one-twentieth of the current $210 million annual cost. Hydrogen is generated by the ISS as a by-product, which is currently vented into space.

NASA high-power SEP system demonstration mission

In June 2011, NASA launched a request-for-proposals for a test mission (from context probably using the NEXT engine) capable of being extended to 300 kW electrical power; this was awarded to Northrup Grumman in February 2012.