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NEXT (ion thruster)
Space propulsion system, a gridded electrostatic ion thruster / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The NASA Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT) project at Glenn Research Center is a gridded electrostatic ion thruster about three times as powerful as the NSTAR used on Dawn and Deep Space 1 spacecraft.[1][2] It was used in DART, launched in 2021.
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Glenn Research Center manufactured the test engine's core ionization chamber, and Aerojet Rocketdyne designed and built the ion acceleration assembly.[3][4]