美国航天局研制的新一代离子发动机完成了持续工作5年半的测试,创造了空间推进器系统最长的连续测试时间纪录。这种推进器是一种太阳能电力推进系统,通过太阳能电池板获得驱动电力。它使用氙气作为推进剂,在长达5年半的测试中,只消耗了860公斤的氙推进剂,但产生的总冲量与消耗10吨传统火箭推进剂相当。通过长时间提供稳定的小推力,这种推进器可以加速到每小时14.5万公里,而推进剂的消耗量不到传统火箭的十分之一。这好比两人开车,一个司机猛踩油门,很快把油用光,然后 A new generation of ion engines developed by NASA completed a five and a half year continuous test and created the longest continuous test record for a space thruster system. This thruster is a solar propulsion system that gets the drive power through a solar panel. Using xenon as a propellant, it consumed only 860 kilos of xenon propellant in a five-and-a-half-year test, but produced a total impulse equivalent to 10 tons of conventional rocket propellant. By providing steady, small thrust over time, the propeller can accelerate to 145,000 kilometers an hour, while propellant consumption is less than one-tenth that of traditional rockets. It is like driving with both, a driver stepping on the accelerator, the oil quickly, and then