Thruster may refer to:

Propulsion devices

A thruster is a propulsive device used by

spacecraft A spacecraft is a vehicle or machine designed to fly in outer space. A type of artificial satellite, spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, Earth observation, meteorology, navigation, space colonization, p ...

and

watercraft Any vehicle used in or on water as well as underwater, including boats, ships, hovercraft and submarines, is a watercraft, also known as a water vessel or waterborne vessel. A watercraft usually has a propulsive capability (whether by sail, ...

for station keeping,

attitude control Attitude control is the process of controlling the orientation of an aerospace vehicle with respect to an inertial frame of reference or another entity such as the celestial sphere, certain fields, and nearby objects, etc. Controlling vehicle ...

, in the

reaction control system A reaction control system (RCS) is a spacecraft system that uses thrusters to provide attitude control and translation. Alternatively, reaction wheels are used for attitude control. Use of diverted engine thrust to provide stable attitude cont ...

, or long-duration, low-thrust acceleration. *

Reaction engine A reaction engine is an engine or motor that produces thrust by expelling reaction mass, in accordance with Newton's third law of motion. This law of motion is commonly paraphrased as: "For every action force there is an equal, but opposite, re ...

Spacecraft thrusters

NASA Space Shuttle Atlantis Thrusters Kennedy Space Center

Rocket engine A rocket engine uses stored rocket propellants as the reaction mass for forming a high-speed propulsive jet of fluid, usually high-temperature gas. Rocket engines are reaction engines, producing thrust by ejecting mass rearward, in accorda ...

, using exothermic chemical reactions of the propellant(s) * Electrohydrodynamic thruster, using ionized air (only for use in an atmosphere) *

Electrostatic ion thruster The gridded ion thruster is a common design for ion thrusters, a highly efficient low-thrust spacecraft propulsion method running on electrical power by using high-voltage grid electrodes to accelerate ions with electrostatic forces. History Th ...

, using high-voltage electrodes *

Ion thruster An ion thruster, ion drive, or ion engine is a form of electric propulsion used for spacecraft propulsion. It creates thrust by accelerating ions using electricity. An ion thruster ionizes a neutral gas by extracting some electrons out of ...

, using beams of ions accelerated electrically *

Hall-effect thruster In spacecraft propulsion, a Hall-effect thruster (HET) is a type of ion thruster in which the propellant is accelerated by an electric field. Hall-effect thrusters (based on the discovery by Edwin Hall) are sometimes referred to as Hall thruste ...

, a type of ion thruster *

Pulsed inductive thruster A pulsed inductive thruster (PIT) is a form of ion thruster, used in spacecraft propulsion. It is a plasma propulsion engine using perpendicular electric and magnetic fields to accelerate a propellant with no electrode. Operation A nozzle r ...

, a pulsed form of ion thruster *

Magnetoplasmadynamic thruster A magnetoplasmadynamic (MPD) thruster (MPDT) is a form of electrically powered spacecraft propulsion which uses the Lorentz force (the force on a charged particle by an electromagnetic field) to generate thrust. It is sometimes referred to as L ...

, electric propulsion using the Lorentz force * Electrodeless plasma thruster, electric propulsion using ponderomotive force *

Pulsed plasma thruster A pulsed plasma thruster (PPT), also known as a plasma jet engine, is a form of electric spacecraft propulsion. PPTs are generally considered the simplest form of electric spacecraft propulsion and were the first form of electric propulsion to be ...

, using current arced across a solid propellant *

Plasma thruster A plasma propulsion engine is a type of electric propulsion that generates thrust from a quasi-neutral plasma. This is in contrast with ion thruster engines, which generate thrust through extracting an ion current from the plasma source, whic ...

Marine thrusters

Azimuth thruster An azimuth thruster is a configuration of marine propellers placed in pods that can be rotated to any horizontal angle (azimuth), making a rudder unnecessary. These give ships better maneuverability than a fixed propeller and rudder system. Ty ...

, pod underneath a ship, instead of a propeller and rudder *

Bow thruster Manoeuvering thruster (bow thruster or stern thruster) is a transversal propulsion device built into, or mounted to, either the bow or stern, of a ship or boat to make it more manoeuvrable. Bow thrusters make docking easier, since they allow th ...

, or stern thruster, at the bow or the stern of a ship or boat *

Rim-driven thruster The rim-driven thruster, also known as rim-driven propulsor/propeller (or RDP) is a novel type of electric propulsion unit for ships. The concept was proposed by Kort around 1940, but only became commercially practical in the early 21st century ...

, electric motor and propeller combined in single unit * Underwater Thrusters, electric motor or hydraulic motor and propeller combined in single unit to propel the ROV, AUV or UUV

Transportation

Thruster (surfing) Simon Anderson (born 7 July 1954) is an Australian competitive surfer, surfboard shaper, and writer. He is credited with the 1980 invention of a three-fin surfboard design, called the "thruster". Early life Anderson grew up in the Northern B ...

is a surfboard fin design *

Shkadov thruster Stellar engines are a class of hypothetical megastructures used to control the motion of a star system. The concept has been introduced by Bădescu, Badescu and Cathcart. Some variants use this energy to produce thrust, and thus accelerate a star ...

, hypothetical megascale reaction for moving a star

Vehicles

Avio Delta Thruster The Avio Delta Thruster is a Bulgarian ultralight trike, designed and produced by Avio Design of Vetrino. The aircraft is supplied as a complete ready-to-fly-aircraft.Bayerl, Robby; Martin Berkemeier; et al: ''World Directory of Leisure Aviation ...

, a Bulgarian ultralight trike design *

Thruster T600 Sprint The Thruster T600 Sprint is a British ultralight aircraft, designed and produced by Thruster Air Services of Langworth, Lincolnshire and introduced in the mid-1990s. The aircraft is supplied as a complete ready-to-fly-aircraft.Bayerl, Robby; ...

, a British ultralight aircraft

Others

Hurrying A hurrier, also sometimes called a coal drawer or coal thruster, was a child or woman employed by a collier to transport the coal that they had mined. Women would normally get the children to help them because of the difficulty of carrying the c ...

, also called 'coal thrusting', a 19th-century profession *

Big Mother Thruster Mercy Drive is an American hard rock band originally based out of Central Florida, best known for writing and performing entrance themes for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) wrestlers, most notably Maven Huffman ("Tattoo") and Randy Orton ("Bu ...

, hard rock band *Thruster (

crossfit CrossFit is a branded fitness regimen that involves constantly varied functional movements performed at high intensity. The method was developed by Greg Glassman, who founded CrossFit with Lauren Jenai in 2000, with CrossFit its registered trad ...