Re:The revolutionary ion engine that took spacecraft to Ceres
by curtis on Monday March 09, 2015 @08:22PM
(#9175074)
Wikipedia says Bismuth looks promising for Hall Effect-based thrusters, and VASIMR has been tested using both Xenon and Argon, the latter of which is in abundant supply, at least on Earth. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_thruster#Propellants)
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Re:The revolutionary ion engine that took spacecraft to Ceres
by dredmorbius on Tuesday March 10, 2015 @06:47AM
(#9177012)
Argon does make sense -- it's higher up the table than xenon -- by two rows, which tends to mean higher abundance. It's also a Nobel gas (largely inert). But a lot lighter -- atomic weight ~40 vs. 131 -- only 30% the mass per atom.
But found with natural gas as a result of nuclear decay within the Earth's crust / mantel.