NASA NSTAR 30-cm ion thruster
Exact NASA NSTAR 30-cm xenon gridded-ion thruster variant flown on Deep Space 1 and used in the Dawn-class propulsion system. JPL documents a 0.5–2.3 kW operating range, 19–92 mN thrust, and 1,900–3,200 s specific impulse; spacecraft-specific configuration records remain outside this propulsion row.
Identity
- Aliases
- NSTAR 30-cmNSTAR ion thrusterNASA Solar Electric Propulsion Technology Applications Readiness thruster
- Domains
- spaceflight
- Identity Level
- variant
- Kind
- electric-thruster
- Name
- NASA NSTAR 30-cm ion thruster
- Status
- historical
Details
- Description
- Exact NASA NSTAR 30-cm xenon gridded-ion thruster variant flown on Deep Space 1 and used in the Dawn-class propulsion system. JPL documents a 0.5–2.3 kW operating range, 19–92 mN thrust, and 1,900–3,200 s specific impulse; spacecraft-specific configuration records remain outside this propulsion row.
- Developers
- Electric Specs
- Input Power Kw Max
- 2.3
- Input Power Kw Min
- 0.5
- Specific Impulse SMax
- 3,200
- Specific Impulse SMin
- 1,900
- Thrust NMax
- 0.092
- Thrust NMin
- 0.019
- Family
Links
- Official Url
- https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20000025404
Assets & Meta
- Creation Time
- August 6, 2026 at 23:34:40 UTC
- Updated Time
- August 22, 2026 at 14:58:11 UTC
Other
- Sources
- Accessed Date
- 2026-08-06
- Note
- NASA technical record identifies the NSTAR 30-cm xenon ion thruster and its engineering-model test basis.
- Publisher
- NASA Technical Reports Server
- Title
- Numerical Thermal Model of a 30-cm NSTAR Ion Thruster
- Accessed Date
- 2026-08-06
- Note
- NASA documents the NSTAR propulsion system and its 0.5–2.3 kW throttleable ion-thruster program managed with JPL and NASA Lewis.
- Publisher
- NASA Technical Reports Server
- Title
- NSTAR Ion Propulsion System Power Electronics
- Accessed Date
- 2026-08-06
- Note
- JPL identifies NASA's Dawn spacecraft as using NSTAR ion thrusters, supporting the operational family boundary without inventing a vehicle link here.
- Publisher
- NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
- Title
- Ion Thrusters
- Accessed Date
- 2026-08-22
- Note
- JPL's Deep Space 1 mission report identifies the exact 30-cm NSTAR thruster, with 0.5–2.3 kW operating power, 19–92 mN thrust, and 1,900–3,200 s specific impulse; values are normalized into electricSpecs.
- Publisher
- NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
- Title
- Results from the Deep Space 1 Technology Validation Mission