Astronomy Cast

Astronomy Cast Ep. 507: From Fiction to Fact : Ion Drive

Ion engines are a mainstay of science fiction, featured in both Star Trek and Wars. But this is a very real technology, successfully used on several missions out there in the Solar System right now. How do they work and what are the limits?

We usually record Astronomy Cast every Friday at 3:00 pm EST / 12:00 pm PST / 20:00 PM UTC. You can watch us live on AstronomyCast.com, or the AstronomyCast YouTube page.

Visit the Astronomy Cast Page to subscribe to the audio podcast!

If you would like to support Astronomy Cast, please visit our page at Patreon here – https://www.patreon.com/astronomycast. We greatly appreciate your support!

If you would like to join the Weekly Space Hangout Crew, visit their site here and sign up. They’re a great team who can help you join our online discussions!

Want to support CosmoQuest? Here are specific ways you can help:
* Donate! (Streamlabs link) https://streamlabs.com/cosmoquestx
* Buy stuff from our Redbubble https://www.redbubble.com/people/cosmoquestx
* Volunteer for our Hangout-a-thon either to promote, provide a
giveaway, or to come on as a guest https://goo.gl/forms/XSm1yi0PKOM166m12
* Help us find sponsors by sharing our program and fundraising efforts through your networks
* Become a Patreon of Astronomy Cast https://www.patreon.com/astronomycast
* Sponsor 365 Days of Astronomy http://bit.ly/sponsor365DoA
* A combination of the above!

Susie Murph

Susie Murph is the Communications Specialist at CosmoQuest. She also produces Astronomy Cast and the Weekly Space Hangout, and is the former producer of the Parsec Award-winning Guide to Space video series.

Recent Posts

What’s the Most Effective Way to Explore our Nearest Stars?

It was 1903 that the Wright brothers made the first successful self-propelled flight. Launching themselves…

6 hours ago

Radiating Exoplanet Discovered in “Perfect Tidal Storm”

Can tidal forces cause an exoplanet’s surface to radiate heat? This is what a recent…

12 hours ago

The Giant Planets Migrated Between 60-100 Million Years After the Solar System Formed

Untangling what happened in our Solar System tens or hundreds of millions of years ago…

1 day ago

Artemis Astronauts Will Deploy New Seismometers on the Moon

Back in the 1960s and 1970s, Apollo astronauts set up a collection of lunar seismometers…

2 days ago

Ice Deposits on Ceres Might Only Be a Few Thousand Years Old

The dwarf planet Ceres has some permanently dark craters that hold ice. Astronomers thought the…

2 days ago

The Mystery of Cosmic Rays Deepens

Cosmic rays are high-energy particles accelerated to extreme velocities approaching the speed of light. It…

2 days ago