"Bonnie Granat" wrote in alt.astronomy:

snip

Check out info about the ion drive, how it works and accelerates.

http://www.space.com/news/smart1_preview_030926.html

quote
SMART-1 (Small Missions for Advanced Research and Technology) is also
billed as a technology testbed. It will use a futuristic ion-electric
engine that is highly efficient and requires less fuel, making the craft
lightweight. Ion engines use small amounts of xenon gas to generate slow
but steady acceleration, rather than the more powerful, rapid acceleration
created by conventional chemical rockets.

The trade-off for ion propulsion is time. It will take the spacecraft,
which is smaller than a kitchen table, 16 months to get to the Moon.
/quote


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