Perspectives on the success of electric propulsion
John Brophy
Abstract
Abstract Electric propulsion is now in both widespread use and active flight-implementation across a broad spectrum of commercial and government applications ranging from cubesats, LEO constellations, GEO comsats, deep space science missions, and even the human-tended Lunar Gateway. It has been my good fortune to witness, and even participate in, to some small extent, the transition of electric propulsion technology from laboratory development to its current wide-ranging acceptance. This paper summarizes my recollection on how this happened from the perspective of working on electric propulsion for 44 years, most of it at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Space limitations dictate that this summary cannot include all (or maybe even most) of the important details and developments of a story that spans more than 40 years. The objective was to identify the key factors that drove electric propulsion’s successes.