From: vince@offshore.ai (Vincent Cate) Newsgroups: sci.space.tech Subject: Re: Prices on Ion Drives or Hall Thrusters? References: <9186edb5.0307071106.12b9975d@posting.google.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 207.42.133.230 Message-ID: <9186edb5.0307100827.665a871c@posting.google.com> Heinrich Zinndorf-Linker wrote in message news:... > OK, buy them in Germany, instead. The Germans will be glad to offer > you a hundred of them out of their catalogue, as you need them. Just > take a look "over the curtain"... I found some ion drives from Daimler Chrysler Aerospace at: http://dutlsisa.lr.tudelft.nl/Propulsion/Data/Rocket_motor_data.htm#Ion_thruster but these are much lower thrust than the 1.5 Newton Russian thruster, just 0.025 N for the large one. Aerojet in the USA also makes ion drives and hall thrusters, see: http://www.rocket.com/epandse.html Not sure of their thrust, but I suspect it is small. Even the Boeing (was Hughes) 702 ion drive is only 0.165 Newtons: http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/space/bss/factsheets/xips/xips.html The Busek BHT-HD-8000 has about 0.5 Newton at 8 kw, see: http://www.busek.com/bht.htm So the Busek is interesting, but currently, for large thrust at high ISP, the Russian SPT-290 is my favorite. Anyone know of any other high ISP thrusters with over 1 Newton thrust? I also suspect Russian prices are lower, and that I won't have the export control problems that can come with buying from a US company. -- Vince