SERT-1 (Space Electric Rocket Test) was a NASA probe used to test
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 ...
design and was built by
NASA's Lewis Research Center (now NASA Glenn). SERT-1 was the first spacecraft to utilize
ion engine
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 ...
design. It was launched on July 20, 1964 on a
Scout rocket.
It carried two electric propulsion engines; of the two, the first, an electron-bombardment ion engine ("Kaufman ion thruster") was run for a total of 31 minutes and 16 seconds. This was the first time that an ion engine of any type had been operated in space, and demonstrated that the neutralizer worked as predicted. (A second thruster, of a different type, failed to operate.)
The test was followed by the SERT-II probe, launched into a 1000-km-high polar orbit on February 3, 1970,
SERT
page at Astronautix (Accessed July 1, 2010) which demonstrated two mercury thrusters operating for 2011 hrs and 3781 hrs in space. Up to 300 thruster restarts were demonstrated.
The SERT rocket tests demonstrated ion engine technology that was later used on the Deep Space 1
''Deep Space 1'' (DS1) was a NASA technology demonstration spacecraft which flew by an asteroid and a comet. It was part of the New Millennium Program, dedicated to testing advanced technologies.
Launched on 24 October 1998, the ''Deep Space ...
probe and later missions.
Technical Papers
Sovey, J. S., Rawlin, V. K., and Patterson, M. J.: "Ion Propulsion Development Projects in U. S.: Space Electric Rocket Test 1 to Deep Space 1," ''Journal of Propulsion and Power, Vol. 17,'' No. 3, May–June 2001, pp. 517–526.
RCA Astro-Electronics Division, ''SUMMARY REPORT on the DEVELOPMENT OF THE SERT I SPACECRAFT'', NASA CR-5424
available at NTIS
(accessed May 11, 2012).
References
External links
A spacecraft for Ion thrustor tests, Pre-mission report for SERT-1
Development of the SERT-1 Spacecraft, Summary Report
Description and Operation of spacecraft in SERT-1 ion thrustor flight test
Results from SERT-1 ion rocket flight test
Thrust measurement of SERT-1 ion thrustors
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NASA space probes