What is the maximum speed an ion engine can propel a spacecraft at?

Question

I read that with our current ion propulsion technology it is possible we could send a craft moving the maximum of 100km per second, or around 62 miles. However we seem to be limited by how strong of a power generator we are able to put aboard the craft.. Is it possible that with enough power we could accelerate a spacecraft beyond this 100km per second limit? What is the maximum speed we could send a craft moving in space at with our current ion engine technology?

Answer 1

The limit isn't due to power, but to engine lifetime and fuel limits.

Ion engines produce very little thrust, so in order to reach speeds of 100km/s they must accelerate continuously for months or years. The Dawn spacecraft, for example, was built with three redundant ion thrusters to extend its lifetime, and got nowhere near 100km/s; it carried enough propellant to change its speed by about 10km/s, and took 15000 hours (~1.7 years) of continuous thrust to change its speed by 4.3km/s.

To achieve a ∆v of 100km/s with an ion engine like those on Dawn (with a specific impulse of 3100 s (exhaust velocity of 30400 m/s)) we turn to the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation:

$$\Delta v = v_\text{e} \ln \frac {m_0} {m_f}$$

Where $v_\text{e}$ is the rocket exhaust velocity and ${m_0}$ and ${m_f}$ are the mass of the craft full of fuel and empty respectively.

$$100000 = 30400 \ln \frac {m_0} {m_f} \Rightarrow 3.29 = \ln \frac {m_0} {m_f} \Rightarrow \frac {m_0} {m_f} = e^{3.29} = 26.8$$

So an ion-thruster spacecraft intending to reach 100km/s must carry 26 times its dry mass in xenon propellant. This is an extremely high mass ratio, not generally achievable in a single-stage spacecraft. A two- or three-stage spacecraft could do it with reasonable mass ratios.

Ion engines are already very power-hungry, and need to be paired with a lot of mass in solar panels or RTGs. More powerful thrusters could increase the exhaust velocity by a small amount, driving down the mass ratio, but at the cost of greatly increasing the dry mass with the larger power supply.

Note that I'm referring to a change in speed or ∆v throughout this answer, rather than a maximum speed. This is because the speed of objects in space must be described relative to a particular reference point, and speed limits don't work the way they do for Earth-bound vehicles.

Answer 2

You have it correct, but you are looking at a very narrow range of ISP.

• The BepiColombo mission to mercury uses an ion thruster with a ISP of 4,200 seconds(41,202 M/s). The same formula yields a mass ratio of 11.325.

• The NEXIS ion thruster can achieve 8000 seconds (78,200 m/s)

• The European DS4G innovative thruster manages 19,300 seconds (188,200 m/s) exceeding the 100 km/sec from the above question.

• Lithium fed GIT (gridded ion thrusters) have demonstrated 50,000 - 80,000 seconds of ISP(490 km/s to 780 km/sec).

The problem is not so much mass ratio but power applied to the thruster and electrode erosion. The DS4G is the first thruster to have concentrated power in a small form, what is needed a nuclear reactor delivering 100 of KW's or maybe Mw of power.

With Megawatts of power it is possible to have Ion thrusters exceeding 100,000 seconds of ISP (over 1,000 km/sec).