{"id":176132,"date":"2023-11-16T07:24:09","date_gmt":"2023-11-16T13:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/11\/true-blue-high-power-propulsion-for-gateway"},"modified":"2023-11-16T07:24:09","modified_gmt":"2023-11-16T13:24:09","slug":"true-blue-high-power-propulsion-for-gateway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/11\/true-blue-high-power-propulsion-for-gateway","title":{"rendered":"True Blue: High-Power Propulsion for Gateway"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/true-blue-high-power-propulsion-for-gateway.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The blue hue of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/feature\/glenn\/2023\/nasa-aerojet-rocketdyne-put-gateway-thruster-system-to-the-test\">Advanced Electric Propulsion System<\/a> (AEPS) is seen inside a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/specials\/epl360\/\">vacuum chamber<\/a> at NASA\u2019s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland during recent thruster qualification testing. This 12-kilowatt <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/feature\/glenn\/2020\/the-propulsion-we-re-supplying-it-s-electrifying\">Hall thruster<\/a> is the most powerful electric propulsion thruster in production, and it will be critical to future science and exploration missions at the Moon and beyond.<\/p>\n<p>The blue plume is a steady stream of ionized xenon gas ejected to produce low, highly efficient thrust. These electric propulsion systems accelerate spacecraft to extremely high speeds over time using only a fraction of the fuel chemical propulsion systems require, making electric propulsion an excellent choice for deep-space exploration and science missions.<\/p>\n<p>Three AEPS thrusters will be mounted on the Power and Propulsion Element, a foundational component of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/gateway\">Gateway<\/a>. The small lunar space station is critical to the agency\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/specials\/artemis\/\">Artemis missions<\/a> that will help prepare for human missions to Mars. The Power and Propulsion Element will provide Gateway with power, high-rate communications, and allow it to maintain its unique orbit around the Moon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The blue hue of the Advanced Electric Propulsion System (AEPS) is seen inside a vacuum chamber at NASA\u2019s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland during recent thruster qualification testing. This 12-kilowatt Hall thruster is the most powerful electric propulsion thruster in production, and it will be critical to future science and exploration missions at the Moon [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":367,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,1514],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-176132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chemistry","category-space-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/367"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176132\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}