Preparing Psyche’s Thruster Installation

Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California prepare to integrate four Hall thrusters (beneath red protective covers) into the agency's Psyche spacecraft in July 2021. Psyche will use solar electric propulsion. This super-efficient mode of propulsion uses solar arrays to capture sunlight that is converted into electricity to power the spacecraft's thrusters. The thrusters work by turning xenon gas, a neutral gas used in car headlights and plasma TVs, into xenon ions. As the xenon ions are accelerated out of the thruster, they create the thrust that will propel the spacecraft.