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+-   Ion engine enters space race-> on Thursday April 17 2008, @04:36PM Bibek Paudel

Submitted by Bibek Paudel on Thursday April 17 2008, @04:36PM
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Bibek Paudel writes "In a laboratory in a leafy part of Hampshire, where defence and security firm Qinetiq develops and tests its ion engines — a technology that will take spacecraft to the planets, powered by the Sun a huge vacuum chamber has been designed to replicate — as far as possible — the conditions of space.
Using helium gas as a coolant, they can bring down the temperature in the vacuum chamber to an incredibly chilly 20 Kelvin (-253C). The pressure, meanwhile, can drop to a millionth of an atmosphere. The ion engine developed by Qinetiq, the T5, will be flown for the first time on the European Space Agency's Goce spacecraft. The mission will fly just 200-300km above the Earth, mapping the tiny variations in its gravity field. It took 20 to 30 years to develop, at a cost of tens of millions of pounds. In theory, using this technology, a spacecraft can be taken beyond our Solar System, if sustained for long enough."
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