A mercury ion propulsion system
- Paper ID
IAF-66-096
- author
- company
Physikalisches Institut der Universität Giessen
- country
Federal Republic of Germany
- year
1966
- abstract
The following four requirements are generally laid down for an effective propulsion system : reliability, sufficient acceleration, high terminal velocity, and great payload capacity. Conventional chemical rockets are filling only the two first of these conditions satisfactorily. Their low terminal velocity necessitates the employment of the step principle, which in turn reduces the payload capacity to a few per cent or less.