How to Use specific impulse in a Sentence

specific impulse

noun
  • Cryogenic fuels have a much higher specific impulse, the amount of thrust per unit of propellant, than hypergolics, and someday they may even be made from water ice near the moon’s south pole.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 9 Feb. 2026
  • According to Astrobotic, this detonation process leads to an increase in specific impulse, or engine efficiency, of 15 percent.
    — Chris Young, Interesting Engineering, 27 Apr. 2026
  • The Chi engine’s closed-cycle design is expected to provide a specific impulse advantage over open-cycle alternatives like the YF-102 already in commercial use.
    — Chris Young, Interesting Engineering, 27 May 2026
  • This higher specific impulse could dramatically reduce transit times to Mars, minimizing astronauts’ exposure to microgravity and cosmic radiation, both of which pose health risks over long periods.
    — Chris Young, Interesting Engineering, 12 Jan. 2026
  • Where a solid fuel rocket has a specific impulse – a measure of rocket efficiency – of about 240 seconds, the SFJR can manage 1,000 seconds.
    — New Atlas, 24 Sep. 2025
  • The exciting potential of the new technology, which is called a centrifugal nuclear thermal rocket (CNTR), can be neatly summed up by its specific impulse, which describes how efficient a rocket is at generating thrust.
    — Keith Cooper, Space.com, 24 Sep. 2025
  • The goal is to design, manufacture, and test a prototype thruster capable of stable operation with Earth’s atmospheric gases (N₂/O₂ mixtures), achieving at least 50% electrical efficiency and a minimum specific impulse of 4200 s.
    — Prabhat Ranjan Mishra, Interesting Engineering, 27 Mar. 2026
  • Essentially, a nuclear rocket engine is a reactor that has hydrogen running through it as a propellant, which is heated to an astonishing 3,000 K (2,727 °C, 4,940 °F), giving it almost twice the efficiency in terms of thrust and specific impulse as a chemical rocket.
    — David Szondy september 10, New Atlas, 10 Sep. 2025
  • In principle, a CNTR rocket can double the specific impulse provided by previous nuclear thermal rocket designs dating back to the 1950s (and still being worked on by NASA and DARPA today) as well as quadruple that which can be achieved by chemical rockets.
    — Keith Cooper, Space.com, 24 Sep. 2025

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