SRC-172

NEXT-C Flight Ion System Status, AIAA 2020-3604.

Fisher; Ferraiuolo; Monheiser; Goodfellow; Hoskins; Myers (Aerojet Rocketdyne); Bontempo; McDade (ZIN Technologies); O'Malley; Soulas; Shastry; Gonzalez (NASA Glenn), as printed on the title page ·2020 · T4 commissioned study or industry paper · VC04

Commissioned by AIAA. Who paid for a study is recorded because it bears on how its conclusions should be read, not because it makes them wrong.

10.2514/6.2020-3604 the identifier this document is registered under

Published claims resting on this source

CLM-0672 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.
CLM-0673 Electric thrusters get roughly seven to fourteen times more push per kilogram of fuel than ordinary rocket fuel does, based on real, published engine performance figures.

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SRC-172 , recorded 2026-09-03.