00:01Okay, but that sounds very similar to the ion thruster. So what exactly is the difference?
00:08Well, at first glance, both systems share the basic principle. They ionize a propellant like
00:15xenon and accelerate the ions electrically to generate thrust without chemical combustion.
00:21But the devil is in the details. With a classic ion thruster, also called a gridded ion thruster,
00:27the ions are accelerated by an electrostatic field between grids, essentially two charged plates,
00:35which allows for a high specific impulse of 2000 to 5000 seconds, but means very low thrust,
00:44and makes the grids susceptible to erosion since high energy ions bombard them.
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