ion engine
noun
: a reaction engine deriving thrust from the ejection of a stream of ionized particles
Examples of ion engine in a Sentence
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The impulse generated is not as immediately forceful as a chemical rocket, but ion engines require less fuel and therefore less mass, which reduces launch costs, and ion engines don't use up all their fuel as quickly as chemical rockets do.
—
Keith Cooper, Space.com, 25 Jan. 2025
The satellites separated from the rocket but at an altitude too low for the spacecraft's ion engines to overcome.
—Stephen Clark, Ars Technica, 15 July 2024
And by my calculations, the world’s annual production of xenon—the go-to propellant for ion engines—is insufficient to carry even a single solar-power satellite to GEO.
—IEEE Spectrum, 9 May 2024
Propelled by an ion engine, the craft was the first to ever visit a dwarf planet.
—Chelsea Gohd, Discover Magazine, 11 Dec. 2018
The laser would bathe the panels in light a hundred times as bright as sunshine, keeping the ion engine running from here to Pluto, about 4 billion miles away.
—Corey S. Powell, Discover Magazine, 13 Mar. 2019
Called a gridded ion engine, this is the type that powers Dawn.
—Steve Gabriel, Discover Magazine, 10 Mar. 2015
The Dawn spacecraft used an efficient ion engine to visit Vesta (left) and Ceres (right) in this artist’s rendering.
—Corey S Powell, Discover Magazine, 30 Apr. 2015
An ion engine ionizes propellant by adding or removing electrons to produce ions.
—Amy Shira Teitel, Discover Magazine, 25 Feb. 2018
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Keith Cooper, Space.com, 25 Jan. 2025
The satellites separated from the rocket but at an altitude too low for the spacecraft's ion engines to overcome.
—Stephen Clark, Ars Technica, 15 July 2024
And by my calculations, the world’s annual production of xenon—the go-to propellant for ion engines—is insufficient to carry even a single solar-power satellite to GEO.
—IEEE Spectrum, 9 May 2024
Propelled by an ion engine, the craft was the first to ever visit a dwarf planet.
—Chelsea Gohd, Discover Magazine, 11 Dec. 2018
The laser would bathe the panels in light a hundred times as bright as sunshine, keeping the ion engine running from here to Pluto, about 4 billion miles away.
—Corey S. Powell, Discover Magazine, 13 Mar. 2019
Called a gridded ion engine, this is the type that powers Dawn.
—Steve Gabriel, Discover Magazine, 10 Mar. 2015
The Dawn spacecraft used an efficient ion engine to visit Vesta (left) and Ceres (right) in this artist’s rendering.
—Corey S Powell, Discover Magazine, 30 Apr. 2015
An ion engine ionizes propellant by adding or removing electrons to produce ions.
—Amy Shira Teitel, Discover Magazine, 25 Feb. 2018
Dictionary Entries Near ion engine
Cite this Entry
“Ion engine.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ion%20engine. Accessed 2 Feb. 2025.
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