T6 Ion Thruster
QinetiQ Space
22 cm gridded Kaufman ion thruster — 4.5 kW, 250 mN thrust — flight-proven on ESA's BepiColombo mission to Mercury.
Technical specifications
- Grid Diameter
- 22 cm
- Input Power
- 4.5 kW
- Thrust (max)
- 250 mN
- Exhaust Velocity
- 50,000 m/s
- Propellant
- Xenon
- Type
- Gridded Kaufman ion thruster
- Flight Heritage
- ESA BepiColombo (launched 2018), AlphaSat TDP#4
- Operating Temperature
- Tested to −150°C
About
The QinetiQ T6 Ion Thruster is a 22 cm diameter gridded Kaufman-type electric propulsion device described as the world’s most advanced ion thruster. Operating at 4.5 kW input power, it delivers up to 250 mN of thrust — two engines together propelling ESA’s BepiColombo spacecraft to Mercury — with an exhaust velocity of 50,000 m/s, approximately 15 times greater than chemical propulsion.
The T6 was selected for the AlphaSat TDP#4 qualification demonstration and serves as the primary propulsion system for ESA’s BepiColombo Mercury mission launched in October 2018. QinetiQ operates dedicated ion thruster test facilities at Farnborough, UK, including a 1.6 × 3.0 m thruster test chamber capable of simulating the orbital vacuum environment. The T6 uses xenon propellant in a steady-state gridded configuration, providing high specific impulse for interplanetary missions and high-orbit satellite applications.
Documentation
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