How to Use ion engine in a Sentence
ion engine
noun-
On the surface, ion engines might seem like a poor choice for faster Mars missions.
—
New Atlas,
12 May 2026
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However, an ion engine is designed to push a spacecraft forward.
—
Keith Cooper,
Space.com,
16 Sep. 2025
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Firing an ion engine's plasma exhaust at a piece of space junk would therefore push the removal satellite away from the junk.
—
Keith Cooper,
Space.com,
16 Sep. 2025
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An ion engine works by using an inert gas as a propellant; often this gas is xenon, but Takahashi used argon.
—
Keith Cooper,
Space.com,
16 Sep. 2025
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The heat produced by the reactor is transformed into electricity and this is what ionizes (electrically charges) the propellant gases for use in the ion engine.
—
Keith Cooper,
Space.com,
27 Mar. 2026
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What to read next Nuclear electric propulsion Another advance that dates back to the 1960s is electric propulsion, perhaps better known as the ion engine.
—
Keith Cooper,
Space.com,
27 Mar. 2026
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This is greater than the thrust provided by the ion engine on board the Japanese Aerospace Agency's (JAXA) Hayabusa2 mission to the asteroid Ryugu, for example.
—
Keith Cooper,
Space.com,
16 Sep. 2025
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'ion engine.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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