World-first firing of air-breathing electric thruster

In a world-first, an ESA-led team has built and fired an electric thruster to ingest scarce air molecules from the top of the atmosphere for propellant, opening the way to satellites flying in very low orbits for years on end. ESA’s GOCE gravity-mapper flew as low as 250 km for more than four years thanks to an electric thruster that continuously compensated for air drag. However, its working life

[Ditty]

低軌道衛星用のエアブリージング・イオンスラスタ（空気を利用したイオン推進）。