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NASA NSTAR 30-cm ion thruster

Exact NASA NSTAR 30-cm xenon gridded-ion thruster variant flown on Deep Space 1 and Dawn-class propulsion systems. This packet creates the canonical electric-thruster identity only; NSTAR family linkage, spacecraft installations, power-processing-unit integration, actors, and lineage edges remain separately evidence-bound.

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 Dawn-class propulsion systems. This packet creates the canonical electric-thruster identity only; NSTAR family linkage, spacecraft installations, power-processing-unit integration, actors, and lineage edges remain separately evidence-bound.
Family

Links

Assets & Meta

Creation Time
August 6, 2026 at 23:34:40 UTC
Updated Time
August 6, 2026 at 23:36:05 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