Value chain · CLM-0672
In plain terms
A 2020 paper by the builders of NASA's NEXT-C ion engine and NASA engineers gives the engine's ground-test performance; NASA's 2024 space-solar-power cost report names this engine but gives no performance figures for it. This is a real, tested engine, not a hypothetical one.
The claim as recorded
NASA's NEXT-C gridded ion thruster is ground-test-characterised at a thrust range of approximately 25 to 235 mN, a specific impulse ranging from 1,400 to 4,200 seconds depending on throttle condition, and a power-processing-unit input power of up to 7.4 kW - the thruster NASA OTPS names as the basis of its electric-propulsion sensitivity (SRC-012 PDF p.36 and p.90), although SRC-012 itself prints no NEXT-C thrust, specific-impulse or power figure for these values to confirm.
Scope and limits
Ground-test characterisation of the thruster itself, not a flight demonstration of a full GEO transfer at any mass scale. The 4,200 s and 7.4 kW are the abstract's envelope values: the throttle table (Table 1, PDF p.4) runs from 25 mN, with 1,395 s and 0.64 kW of PPU input power, up to 235 mN, with 4,155 s and 7.33 kW. NASA OTPS cites a 2023 NASA web page for NEXT-C (SRC-012 PDF p.105), not this paper, so the two documents are linked by the thruster's name only.
What it assumes
No assumptions are recorded against this claim.
Where it comes from
"The thruster is throttleable across a thrust range of approximately 25 to 235mN. Thruster specific impulse ranges from 1400 to 4200sec, depending on the throttle condition. Each NEXT-C thruster is powered by a PPU with an input power of up to 7.4kW."
Related records
- Answers question
- QST-002 not published in this release
Cite this
energyaperture.com/c/clm-0672
CLM-0672, Energy Aperture, as of 2020.
Connected records
Other published records linked to this one. A list, not a judgement.