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NASA is making a powerful new ion engine to send astronauts to Mars

A prototype ion engine that uses lithium vapor as a propellant has aced its first tests, achieving 25 times more power than ...
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NASA tests record-breaking ion thruster for future Mars missions

NASA has successfully tested a 120-kilowatt magnetoplasmadynamic ion thruster, 25 times more powerful than its current top-performing engine. The technology is planned to scale to megawatt levels and ...
New Atlas

Fusion drive space engine ready for flight

Rocket science got a bit more science-fiction-like as RocketStar announces it has successfully demonstrated a new ion drive that incorporates nuclear fusion. It's not the sort of fusion that powers ...
ExtremeTech

NASA's NEXT ion drive breaks world record, will eventually power interplanetary missions

Proving yet again that Star Trek was scarily prescient, NASA has announced that its NEXT ion drive -- NASA's Evolutionary Xenon Thruster -- has operated continually for over 43,000 hours (five years).