For decades, nuclear fusion has been viewed as the ultimate energy source—clean, powerful, and practically limitless. Most ...

Space has a trash problem, with defunct satellites, rockets, and smaller broken bits orbiting Earth at high speeds. The ...

The magnetic nozzle rf plasma thruster operated in a Mega hpt vacuum chamber at Tohoku University CREDIT Kazunori Takahashi A Tohoku University researcher has increased the performance of a high-power ...

Just like litter is a big problem on Earth, space junk is cluttering up outer space. To dispose of this junk, a researcher ...

Defunct satellites, old rocket parts, and thousands of fragments from past missions are rapidly filling Earth's orbit ...

It was believed that Hall thrusters, an efficient kind of electric propulsion widely used in orbit, need to be large to produce a lot of thrust. Now, a new study from the University of Michigan ...

Hall thrusters utilise electric propulsion through the ionisation and acceleration of plasma under crossed electric and magnetic fields, offering efficient and reliable performance for spacecraft.

A new plasma thruster could scale up to compete with traditional jet engines. The plasma is magnified by high-intensity microwaves and pressurized air. Researchers had to invent a way to measure the 1 ...

Magnetic nozzle plasma thrusters are thought of as the future of space travel. But one problem has hampered their development -- plasma detachment. A recent study has shown that spontaneously excited ...

A Tohoku University researcher has increased the performance of a high-power electrodeless plasma thruster, moving us one step closer to deeper explorations into space. y, several space missions have ...