how does a particle rocket work ......can anyone help?

6 responses total.

I don't know if this will help or not, but you might want to look here:
http://ans.neep.wisc.edu/~ans/point_source/AEI/sep95/rocket.html.

You mean an ion rocket?  What kind of particles exactly?

the first response was quite interesting thanks for that.but yes i am really
looking for how an ion rocket works

You put a charge on something and use the charge to push it.

The ion drive on Deep Space 1 uses xenon gas as its propellant.  IIRC,
there is a "discharge chamber" which receives gas in milligram spurts,
and an electrical discharge causes some atoms to lose an electron.
At the exhaust end of the engine is a pair of grids with a high voltage
between them.  If one of the ions finds its way near the first grid,
the electric field takes hold of it and accelerates it strongly toward
the far one.  Assuming the ion doesn't strike one of the wires, it
flies out the back at somewhere between 15,000 and 30,000 meters per second.
The electrons removed from the xenon atoms that leave are sprayed off the
spacecraft by an electron gun; some of the ions recombine with electrons
and form what I hear is a beautiful blue (and even green) glow.

In short, it's an atom smasher without the target chamber, collision
analysis instruments, etc. - just the high-speed atomic pea shooter.

No, a very low-speed atomic pea-shooter.  "High speed" is relativistic,
meaning close to 300 million meters per second.  This ion drive tops out
at thirty thousand.

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