Editing Ion thruster (section)

== Origins ==
[[File:SERT-1 spacecraft.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|right|SERT-1 spacecraft]]

The first person who wrote a paper introducing the idea publicly was [[Konstantin Tsiolkovsky]] in 1911.<ref name="choueiri2">{{cite web |title=Ion Propulsion – Over 50 Years in the Making |url=http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/prop06apr99_2.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100327120759/http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/prop06apr99_2.htm |archive-date=2010-03-27 |work=Science@NASA}}</ref> The technique was recommended for near-vacuum conditions at high altitude, but thrust was demonstrated with ionized air streams at atmospheric pressure. The idea appeared again in [[Hermann Oberth]]'s ''Wege zur Raumschiffahrt'' (1929; ''Ways to Spaceflight''),<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wolf |first=K. |date=1931-12-01 |title=Wege zur Raumschiffahrt |journal=Monatshefte für Mathematik und Physik |language=de |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=A58 |doi=10.1007/BF01700815 |s2cid=115467575 |issn=1436-5081|doi-access=free }}</ref> where he explained his thoughts on the mass savings of electric propulsion, predicted its use in [[spacecraft propulsion]] and [[Spacecraft attitude control|attitude control]], and advocated electrostatic acceleration of charged gasses.<ref name="choueiri3">{{cite web |url=https://massless.info/images/choueiri-jpp-2004.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221010091826/https://massless.info/images/choueiri-jpp-2004.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-10 |url-status=live |title=A Critical History of Electric Propulsion: The First 50 Years (1906–1956) |access-date=2016-10-18 |first= E. Y. |last=Choueiri}}</ref>

A working ion thruster was built by [[Harold R. Kaufman]] in 1959 at the [[NASA]] [[Glenn Research Center]] facilities. It was similar to a gridded electrostatic ion thruster and used [[mercury (element)|mercury]] for propellant. Suborbital tests were conducted during the 1960s and in 1964, and the engine was sent into a suborbital flight aboard the [[SERT-1|Space Electric Rocket Test-1]] (SERT-1).<ref name='Ion 1964'>{{cite web |url=http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/about/history/ds1.html |title=Contributions to Deep Space 1 |date=14 April 2015 |publisher=NASA}} {{PD-notice}}</ref><ref name="Cybulski">{{cite web |first1=Ronald J. |last1=Cybulski |first2=Daniel M. |last2=Shellhammer |first3=Robert R. |last3=Lovell |first4=Edward J. |last4=Domino |first5=Joseph T. |last5=Kotnik |url=https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19650009681/downloads/19650009681.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19650009681/downloads/19650009681.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title=Results from SERT I Ion Rocket Flight Test |id=NASA-TN-D-2718 |publisher=[[NASA]] |date=1965}}{{PD-notice}}</ref> It successfully operated for the planned 31 minutes before falling to Earth.<ref name="Glenn">{{cite web |title=Innovative Engines – Glenn Ion Propulsion Research Tames the Challenges of 21st Century Space Travel |url=http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/about/fs08grc.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070915023928/http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/about/fs08grc.html |archive-date=2007-09-15 |access-date=2007-11-19}} {{PD-notice}}</ref> This test was followed by an orbital test, SERT-2, in 1970.<ref name="sert2">{{cite web |publisher=[[NASA Glenn Research Center]] |url=http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/ion/past/70s/sert2.htm |title=Space Electric Rocket Test II (SERT II) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927004353/http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/ion/past/70s/sert2.htm |archive-date=2011-09-27 |url-status=dead |access-date=1 July 2010}}{{PD-notice}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=October 25, 2010 |title=Encyclopedia Astronautica Index: 1 |url=http://www.astronautix.com/4/404page.html |access-date=2024-05-17 |website=www.astronautix.com}}</ref>

On the 12 October 1964 [[Voskhod 1]] carried out tests with ion thrusters that had been attached to the exterior of the spacecraft.<ref name="SiddiqiION">{{cite book |last=Siddiqi |first=Asif A. |url=https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4408pt1.pdf |title=Challenge To Apollo: The Soviet Union and The Space Race, 1945–1974 |date=2000 |publisher=NASA |page=423 |language=en-us}}</ref> 

An alternate form of electric propulsion, the [[Hall-effect thruster]], was studied independently in the [[United States]] and the [[Soviet Union]] in the 1950s and 1960s. Hall-effect thrusters operated on Soviet satellites from 1972 until the late 1990s, mainly used for satellite stabilization in north–south and in east–west directions. Some 100–200 engines completed missions on Soviet and [[Russia]]n satellites.<ref name="NK">{{cite web |url=http://novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/content/numbers/198/35.shtml |title=Native Electric Propulsion Engines Today |publisher=Novosti Kosmonavtiki |date=1999
|issue=7 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606033558/http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/content/numbers/198/35.shtml |archive-date=6 June 2011 |language=ru}}</ref> Soviet thruster design was introduced to the West in 1992 after a team of electric propulsion specialists, under the support of the [[Ballistic Missile Defense Organization]], visited Soviet laboratories.