Electric Propulsion: Which One For My
Spacecraft?
Ian J. E. Jordan
Submitted December 6, 2000 to V. Pisacane as part of requirements for 744
Space Systems I course at JHU, Whiting School of Engineering.
1.0 Introduction
Electric propulsion has become a cost effective and sound engineering solution for many space appli-
cations. Two of the main reasons why are its increased commercial availability and the opportunity it
affords to perform the same task as conventional chemical propulsion systems while reducing the por-
tion of the spacecraft’s mass required for that task. Electric propulsion systems have been tested on
ground and in space since the 1960s, and a wide variety of system types are available or have flown.
In this survey systems compatible with solar electric propulsion and that are commercially available
are emphasized, however other types are mentioned for completeness. Blind pursuit of completeness
can be a never ending endeavour and therefore some techniques will not be broached such as solar
photon sailing, fusion, railguns, and laser propulsion. Included are summaries of the principles,
advantages, disadvantages, ground based test experience, spaceflight experience, and descriptions of
electric propulsion systems currently available. The reader should use this article as a pointer to other
documentation sources as it is not meant to be an authoritative source of principles, design require-
ments, constraints, or data. Be also cautioned that research for the article tapped the resources of the
world wide web extensively, and many of the references point to pages which have half-lives shorter
than academic cycles. Occasionally, more conventional references are cited alongside URLs.
With a control systems engineer in mind, an attempt is made to provide enough information for mak-
ing preliminary choices about which type of electric propulsion might be suitable for an application.
In this regard, the tables provide much of the “meat and potatoes” content. According to the Chemi-
cal Propulsion