/sci/ - Science & Math

>>14726280
Ion thrusters aren't that hard to build, like a lot of generic satellite parts they likely have a fairly low profit margin, and Apollo Fusion wasn't a particularly good company before Astra picked them up. They caught a bunch of shit for trying to use mercury propellant before it was banned, in hopes of increasing thrust but electrostatic propulsion is just limited in that regard. For maneuvering near Earth I'd rather see microwave electrothermal thrusters which have lower Isp but more thrust and they can use plain water instead of expensive noble gases. Overall it's a better fit for a world with Starship in it and the resulting rideshare opportunities which are unfavourable to non-hypergolic chemical propellant(boil-off, loading issues), toxic hypergolics, and just anything uses a high pressure system since a leak could jeopardize other payloads.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/mercury-ion-thruster-banned