woberto Report This Comment Date: November 04, 2014 10:20AM
NEXT = NASA Evolutionary Xenon Thruster
Quoth the wiki;
"The NEXT engine is a type of solar electric propulsion in which thruster
systems use the electricity generated by the spacecraft's solar panel to
accelerate the xenon propellant to speeds of up to 90,000 mph (145,000 km/h).
NEXT can produce 6.9 kW thruster power and 236 Nm thrust. It can be throttled
down to 0.5 kW power, and has a specific impulse of 4190 seconds (compared to
3120 for NSTAR). The NEXT thruster has demonstrated a total impulse of 17 MN·s;
which is the highest total impulse ever demonstrated by an ion thruster.