Australians claim ion space engine breakthrough | Science Blog

A new Ion engine design is said to be four times faster (and thus four times more fuel efficient) than current state-of-the-art designs, as well as being very compact and scalable. Surprisingly they are even being proposed for manned spacecraft.

"Once ready, these engines will be able to propel spacecraft to the outermost planets, the newly discovered planetoids beyond Pluto and even further, into the unknown realm of interstellar space beyond the Solar System. Closer to home, these supercharged ion engines could figure prominently in the human exploration of space. With an adequate supply of electrical power, a small cluster of larger, high power versions of the new engine design would provide enough thrust to propel a crewed spacecraft to Mars and back.
�This is an ultra-ion engine. It has exceeded the current crop by many times and opens up a whole new frontier of exploration possibilities,� says Dr Walker. "