Tuesday, June 30, 2026
Science

NASA fires up powerful lithium-fed thruster for trips to Mars

A technology that could propel crewed missions to Mars and robotic spacecraft throughout the solar system was recently put to the test at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. On Feb. 24, for the first time in years and at power levels exceeding any previous test in the United Sta...

NASA fires up powerful lithium-fed thruster for trips to Mars
Image: Phys.org
A technology that could propel crewed missions to Mars and robotic spacecraft throughout the solar system was recently put to the test at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. On Feb. 24, for the first time in years and at power levels exceeding any previous test in the United States, a team fired up an electromagnetic thruster that runs on lithium metal vapor.

Originally published at Phys.org

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