Heinrich Zinndorf-Linker wrote in message ...
OK, buy them in Germany, instead. The Germans will be glad to offer
you a hundred of them out of their catalogue, as you need them. Just
take a look "over the curtain"...

I found some ion drives from Daimler Chrysler Aerospace at:
http://dutlsisa.lr.tudelft.nl/Propul...m#Ion_thruster

but these are much lower thrust than the 1.5 Newton Russian thruster,
just 0.025 N for the large one.

Aerojet in the USA also makes ion drives and hall thrusters, see:
http://www.rocket.com/epandse.html

Not sure of their thrust, but I suspect it is small.
Even the Boeing (was Hughes) 702 ion drive is only 0.165 Newtons:
http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/...xips/xips.html

The Busek BHT-HD-8000 has about 0.5 Newton at 8 kw, see:
http://www.busek.com/bht.htm

So the Busek is interesting, but currently, for large thrust at
high ISP, the Russian SPT-290 is my favorite. Anyone know of any
other high ISP thrusters with over 1 Newton thrust?

I also suspect Russian prices are lower, and that I won't have the
export control problems that can come with buying from a US company.

-- Vince