NASA's million miles missions require engines that perform continuously, reliably for longer periods - and the NEXT Ion Thruster has ran for 5.5 years non-stop setting up a new record for any type of space propulsion system demonstration project ever. The thruster was developed by NASA under its NASA's Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT) project at th Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. The test engine's core ionisation chamber was manufactured by Glenn while the Aeroject Rocketdyne designed and developed the ion acceleration assembly.

This 7 kW class thruster can be used in wide range of science missions including deep space explorations. Michael J. Patterson, principal investigator of the NEXT project says that the thruster has operated for more than 48,000 hours non-stop and his team will have to terminate the test at the end of this month. The tests have exceeded the expectations of the team working on the project.


The NEXT engine is a kind of a solar electric propulsion which uses the electric energy generated by solar panels of the spacecraft to accelerate the xenon propellant to speeds up to 90,000 mph. This allows dynamic improvement in the performance of the engine as compared to more traditional chemical rocket engines.

During the endurance test, the engine consumed about 870 Kg of xenon propellant providing an amount of total impulse that would otherwise require 10,000 Kg of conventional rocket fuel.

Via: NASA Thruster Achieves World-Record 5+ Years of Operation | NASA