Berkant Göksel at the Technical University of Berlin and his team now want to fit plasma engines to planes. “We want to develop a system that can operate above an altitude of 30 kilometers where ...

Chinese scientists suggest they’re bringing space plasma thrusters down to Earth, with a new kind that performs as well in the atmosphere as others do in the vacuum of space. Using just air and ...

Researchers from Tohoku University have been trying to find out how the plasma flow is influenced by its environment via laboratory experiments. They are making progress towards creating an ...

Those who watched The Space Between Us would surely have a fresh memory of the plane that Gary Oldman’s character flew from the ground into space. The plane probably used plasma jet engines and they ...

Hall thrusters combine a magnetic field and a trapped electron cloud to create a completely hollow “virtual” cathode. A small amount of propellant gas (like xenon) is injected into the thruster’s ...

NASA expects to sign an agreement to test a new propulsion system on the International Space Station, according to the US space agency's administrator Michael Griffin. At the AirVenture show in ...

A new plasma thruster could scale up to compete with traditional jet engines. The plasma is magnified by high-intensity microwaves and pressurized air. Researchers had to invent a way to measure the 1 ...

Born the son of Chinese and Costa Rican parents and with just $50 in his pocket, Franklin Chang Diaz came to the U.S. to do his undergraduate studies at the University of Connecticut and later, his ...